POSTED: Friday September 7th 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Five U.S. gymnasts compete tomorrow in individual event finals of 2007 World Championships

STUTTGART, Germany, Sept. 7, 2007? Nastia Liukin of Parker, Texas, Alicia Sacramone of Winchester, Mass., Guillermo Alvarez of Denver, Alexander Artemev of Morrison, Colo., and Kevin Tan of Fremont, Calif., will compete tomorrow, Sept. 8, on the first day of individual event finals at the 2007 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Stuttgart, Germany. Tomorrow?s competition features women?s vault and uneven bars, and men?s floor exercise, pommel horse and still rings.

Liukin is competing on the uneven bars, and Sacramone is in the vault finals.  For the men, Alvarez is competing on the floor exercise; Artemev, the pommel horse;  and Tan, the still rings. Liukin is the 2005 world uneven bars champion and was the silver medalist in 2006.  Sacramone claimed the world vault silver medal in 2006, after winning the bronze the year before.  Artemev is the 2006 world pommel horse bronze medalist.

The individual event finals are split between Sept. 8 and 9 and begin each day at 2 p.m., local Stuttgart time. The second day has women?s balance beam and floor exercise, and men?s vault, parallel bars and horizontal bar. The top eight gymnasts in each event from the qualification round, with a limit of two athletes per country, advanced to the individual event finals. Scores from the qualification round do not carry forward.

On the second day of individual event finals, Liukin and Sacramone will compete on balance beam and floor exercise, respectively. 2007 world all-around champion Shawn Johnson of West Des Moines, Iowa, will compete on balance beam and floor exercise. 

The U.S. women won the world team title earlier in the event.  Both the men and women qualified for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China.

Based in Indianapolis, USA Gymnastics, the national governing body for gymnastics in the United States, encourages participation and the pursuit of excellence in the sport.  For more information, log on to www.usa-gymnastics.org.

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