Women's podium training wraps up preparations for '09 World Championships

LONDON, Great Britain, Oct. 12, 2009 - Women's podium training wrapped up the final full day of training prior to the start of the 2009 World Championships in London. Competition begins tomorrow with the men's preliminary round, followed by the women's preliminary round on Oct. 14.

Podium training for the women's team was uneventful, giving the gymnasts the chance to train on the actual competition floor. The women trained in three of the five subdivisions: session 2 - Ivana Hong of Allen, Texas/WOGA, uneven bars and balance beam, and Kayla Williams of Nitro, W.Va./Gym Nest Inc., vault and floor; session 3 -- 2008 Olympic team silver-medalist and 2009 U.S. all-around champion Bridget Sloan of Pittsboro, Ind./Sharp's Gymnastics, all-around; and session 5 -- Rebecca Bross of Plano, Texas/WOGA Gymnastics, all-around.

Here's what they had to say following their podium training session.

Rebecca Bross: "I'm feeling great. The equipment is great . . . I've adapted to it now." When asked about being back in international competition after 1.5 years off due to injury and recovery, she said, "It's great to be back out there. I want to show what I can do." She also was asked about competing in the 2012 Olympic venue, "It's not something I am thinking about now. I am staying in this competition. I'll think about it when it's over."

Ivana Hong: "The arena is really beautiful and I'm really excited for the next few days. My bars and beam routines are slightly different (from 2008). It's an honor to come here, and this World Championships is slightly different from 2007 when it was a team. This is an individual (competition). It's kind of strange with all of us training in three different groups."

Bridget Sloan: "I was really happy to get out there. (The floor) felt good. Podium training -- the key word is training. You make mistakes and work them out now. It was a productive day, which is all you can ask for. . . . Winning championships, that definitely was a big boost to my confidence. Coming into this competition, I just try and think of it as any other though I know it's not even close to any other. My philosophy is anything can happen and if it's meant to happen, it'll happen. No regrets. That's all I ask for, no regrets coming out of this competition."

Kayla Williams: "It's a great atmosphere. I am more excited than I thought I would be. I'm more used to the equipment now and it's just like training at home. My vaults went really well. Martha (Karolyi) told me they were the best she's seen since I've been here. I want to do the best vaults that I can and the best floor routine of my life."

This year's World Championships feature competition in the all-around and individual events. Qualification rounds determine advancement to the all-around and apparatus finals. The top 24 men and women compete in the all-around finals on Oct. 15-16. For individual events, the top eight on each apparatus from the qualification rounds advance to the finals (Oct. 17-18).

The U.S. men compete in the preliminary round on Oct. 13. The expected line-up for the U.S. Men's Team is: all-around - 2008 Olympic silver-medalist Jonathan Horton of Houston/Cypress Gymnastics and Tim McNeill of Falls Church, Va./University of California - Berkeley; floor exercise -- Steven Legendre of Flower Mound, Texas/University of Oklahoma; pommel horse and still rings -- Wesley Haagensen of Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Olympic Training Center; vault -- Jake Dalton of Sparks, Nev./University of Oklahoma; and parallel bars and horizontal bar -- Danell Leyva of Miami/Universal Gymnastics.