2014 World Championship silver all-around medalist Larisa Iordache of Romania won the all-around gold by two full points with a score of 59.766 at the FIG World Cup in Stuttgart, Germany this afternoon.

Jessica Lopez of Venezuela, fresh off of winning the all-around title at the 2014 Central American and Caribbean Games in Veracruz, brought home the silver medal with a 57.799 while Germany’s Kim Bui brought home a surprise underdog bronze with a 56.665 thanks to her clean and consistent performances on a day where nearly everyone else made massive mistakes.

Iordache began her day with a clean DTY, easily the best of many DTYs performed in the vault session. On bars, she looked fantastic…really, she looks better with each routine, hitting a clean Maloney and Ray to pak combo, finishing with a stuck full-in. She looked excellent on beam, hitting her bhs tuck full and bhs layout with no problems before hitting her double turn, switch to switch half, front aerial to split jump to sissone, side somi, and triple full dismount. Her form on the triple full was questionable (she was a bit piked in addition to having rough leg form), but it was truly a fantastic routine otherwise, and was great to see her not lose her mental game with a gold medal at stake. On floor, she opened with a big tucked full-in, hit her strong piked full-in, had a slightly messy triple full (hopped to the side), and finished with a nice double pike to secure the gold.

Beginning on vault, Lopez went for her DTY knowing the importance of this major international competition, and she did a fairly decent job with it. On bars, she had an absolutely gorgeous routine, showing beautiful lines and her typically beautiful combinations. She had some checks on beam including after her bhs-bhs-layout series and on an aerial, but it was a hit routine overall, finished with a 2.5 with a hop forward. Floor was a solid event for her, hitting every pass with her 2.5 to punch front looking especially solid.

Bui began her competition with a handspring layout half on vault with no major problems. Her bars were very strong, featuring a nice toe full to Gienger, Jaeger, and stuck full-in dismount. She opened with an awesome back loso mount on beam, an event she also hit with no big issues, though it would be nice to see her fix her bhs form in her series and she did stumble back her double pike dismount. Her floor routine was a fan favorite in Stuttgart; the crowd loved her and she hit her double layout and double pike.

Vanessa Ferrari of Italy came into this competition with the flu, and so wasn’t even close to her best all day, yet still came within about two tenths of winning the bronze medal. Had she performed to her usual standard, she definitely would have been on the podium. Her DTY was a big mess, and she ran out of the landing, finishing out of bounds. On bars, she hit her routine with lots of form errors, though she was able to overcome all of them to stay on the apparatus. Her beam was also hit, but again, just looked rough, especially in terms of her leaps. She did have a nice double pike dismount, but looked completely exhausted when she sat down. Her foor routine looked great for someone dealing with illness; she nailed her double layout, full-in, double tuck, and double pike.

Russia’s Aliya Mustafina was expected to challenge Iordache for gold, but ended up in fifth after two falls. Her DTY was a bit messy in the air with her leg form, but I don’t think the judges ever really dock her for that. The rest was decent enough for her to get away with it. She had her first fall on bars during her pak combo attempt; she had to add a kip between the pak and her van Leeuwen, but got stuck in the kip and had to hop off. Her bad luck continued on beam, where she began with an almost immediate fall on her standing arabian. She hit her switch to Onodi, but then did just a bhs-tuck as her flight series and missed her front aerial connection, which she was hoping to do into her switch ring. She dismounted with a double tuck, getting very little height and stepping forward out of it. She opened her floor routine with a whip whip through to messy double full but showed a GORGEOUS triple Y-turn…aka the MUSTAFINA! She had a step out of her 2.5 and hit her double back with no problem, but the difficulty for this routine was so low, she was unable to keep up with her competitors.

Her teammate Alla Sosnitskaya performed a DTY to start on vault, showing clean twists but taking a big step to the side on her landing. She hit bars, fell on her side aerial on beam, and came back with a mostly strong floor performance, aside from a very deep landing on her double layout opening pass and a slightly underrotated triple full, though it’s performed after two whips so you have to give her some credit! Her double pike and double tuck were both hit well, though overall this wasn’t her best effort here.

In seventh was Ellie Black of Canada, who began with a rough handspring layout full, landing in a squat. She did hit her bars set, however, even if it wasn’t a pretty one. Though she began well on beam with her gorgeous double turn to full turn and a hit bhs tuck full, she then unfortunately fell on her punch front tuck. She opened with an excellent 2.5 to double pike, and then went for a punch full through to double tuck, which came in a bit short but was hit. She ended with a front layout to front double full, stumbling a bit but she looked happy with her finish..

Germany’s Lisa Hill hit a very clean FTY to begin her day, and then absolutely nailed her uneven bars set, which looked like one of her best. Unfortunately, she fell on her side somi on beam, but came back nicely on floor, showing a stumble or two but looking good on her double pike. Her difficulty limits what she can do in a big all-around competition like this, though overall I was impressed with her ability to stay calm and have a mostly clean performance.

Full results are below, as are links to videos of every single routine!

Rank	Athlete	Nation	VT	UB	BB	FX	AA
1	Larisa Iordache	Romania	15.133	14.700	15.333	14.600	59.766
2	Jessica Lopez	Venezuela	14.600	14.833	14.200	14.166	57.799
3	Kim Bui	Germany	14.133	14.600	13.666	14.266	56.665
4	Vanessa Ferrari	Italy	13.800	13.933	14.333	14.366	56.432
5	Aliya Mustafina	Russia	15.000	13.833	13.600	13.966	56.399
6	Alla Sosnitskaya	Russia	14.333	14.000	12.933	14.100	55.366
7	Ellie Black	Canada	13.933	13.733	13.700	13.833	55.199
8	Lisa Katharina Hill	Germany	13.933	14.966	12.700	13.266	54.865

Vault Results

Rank	Athlete	Nation	D	E	Total
1	Larisa Iordache	Romania	5.8	9.333	15.133
2	Aliya Mustafina	Russia	5.8	9.200	15.000
3	Jessica Lopez	Venezuela	5.8	8.800	14.600
4	Alla Sosnitskaya	Russia	5.8	8.633	14.333
5	Kim Bui	Germany	5.4	8.733	14.133
6	Lisa Katharina Hill	Germany	5.0	9.033	13.933
7	Ellie Black	Canada	5.8	8.133	13.933
8	Vanessa Ferrari	Italy	5.8	8.300	13.800

Uneven Bars Results

Rank	Athlete	Nation	D	E	Total
1	Lisa Katharina Hill	Germany	6.5	8.466	14.966
2	Jessica Lopez	Venezuela	6.3	8.533	14.833
3	Larisa Iordache	Romania	6.0	8.700	14.700
4	Kim Bui	Germany	6.0	8.600	14.600
5	Alla Sosnitskaya	Russia	5.7	8.300	14.000
6	Vanessa Ferrari	Italy	5.5	8.433	13.933
7	Aliya Mustafina	Russia	6.3	7.533	13.833
8	Ellie Black	Canada	5.5	8.233	13.733

Balance Beam Results

Rank	Athlete	Nation	D	E	Total
1	Larisa Iordache	Romania	6.3	9.033	15.333
2	Vanessa Ferrari	Italy	5.9	8.433	14.333
3	Jessica Lopez	Venezuela	5.5	8.700	14.200
4	Ellie Black	Canada	6.3	7.400	13.700
5	Kim Bui	Germany	5.3	8.366	13.666
6	Aliya Mustafina	Russia	6.1	7.500	13.600
7	Alla Sosnitskaya	Russia	5.5	7.433	12.933
8	Lisa Katharina Hill	Germany	5.0	7.700	12.700

Floor Exercise Results

Rank	Athlete	Nation	D	E	Total
1	Larisa Iordache	Romania	5.9	8.700	14.600
2	Vanessa Ferrari	Italy	5.8	8.566	14.366
3	Kim Bui	Germany	5.7	8.566	14.266
4	Jessica Lopez	Venezuela	5.4	8.766	14.166
5	Alla Sosnitskaya	Russia	6.0	8.100	14.100
6	Aliya Mustafina	Russia	5.5	8.466	13.966
7	Ellie Black	Canada	5.7	8.233	13.833
8	Lisa Katharina Hill	Germany	4.9	8.366	13.266

Article by Lauren Hopkins