Reuters: Sports News: Mikulak to play reduced role on final day of trials

Reuters: Sports News Reuters.com is your source for breaking news, business, financial and investing news, including personal finance and stocks. Reuters is the leading global provider of news, financial information and technology solutions to the world's media, financial institutions, businesses and individuals. // via fulltextrssfeed.com

Mikulak to play reduced role on final day of trials Jun 30th 2012, 19:04 Tweet Share this Email Print Related News Wieber in charge at U.S. gymnastics trials 1:02am EDT Gymnast Sloan out of trials with injury Fri, Jun 29 2012 Olympics-U.S. strength in depth creates ultra tight trials Thu, Jun 28 2012 Gymnasts Leyva, Orozco stay top at trials Thu, Jun 28 2012 Orozco targets "Ninja" approach for Olympic spot Wed, Jun 27 2012 Sam Mikulak competes on the parallel bars at the U.S. Olympic gymnastics trials in San Jose, California June 28, 2012. Credit: Reuters/Brian Snyder By Mark Lamport-Stokes SAN JOSE, California | Sat Jun 30, 2012 3:04pm EDT SAN JOSE, California (Reuters) - Sam Mikulak's hopes of selection for the London Games hinged largely on his superb first day at the U.S. Olympic gymnastics trials after he opted to compete in only one routine on Saturday. The 2012 U.S. parallel bars silver medalist hurt his left ankle in his last event on Thursday, the vault, and planned to take part in only the pommel horse on the final day of competition, his coach Kurt Golder said. Fifteen gymnasts are vying for five spots on offer at next month's Olympics and the fast emerging Mikulak was third in the overall standings after dominating the opening day at the HP Pavilion. The 19-year-old was the most impressive gymnast of the afternoon, totaling 91.800 from his six routines to close the gap on world parallel bars champion Danell Leyva and U.S. all-around champion John Orozco. However, Mikulak had to put ice on his left ankle after a painful finish on the vault on Thursday and was not optimistic on Saturday about his chances of competing in all six routines. "It's in bad shape but we'll see right before the competition," he tweeted about his swollen ankle. Mikulak, who claimed the 2011 NCAA all-around title as a freshman at University of Michigan, was ruled out of selection for last year's world championships after breaking his ankles during a competition in Puerto Rico. He was sidelined for several months and wore walking boots on both feet for protection while recovering. The top two men, based on combined scores from the U.S. nationals and trials, will earn automatic Olympic selection after the second day of competition on Saturday if they also finish in the top three in at least three events. If not, the selection committee will pick two gymnasts on Saturday with the remaining three spots for the London Games to be added on Sunday. Leyva and Orozco are likely to remain as the top two with Mikulak, Jonathan Horton and Jake Dalton expected to round out the team. (Editing by Tony Jimenez) Tweet this Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/ Comments (0) Be the first to comment on reuters.com. Add yours using the box above.

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions