Rising Star Jayla Hang Wins 2025 Pan American Gymnastics Championship
LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY - FEBRUARY 24: Jayla Hang competes in the Beam during the Senior Women ... More competition of the 2024 USA Gymnastics Winter Cup at Kentucky International Convention Center on February 24, 2024 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo by)
U.S. gymnast Jayla Hang won all-around gold at Friday's Pan American Gymnastics Championships in Panama City, Panama. Canadian challenger Lia Fontaine won silver, and U.S. Olympic gold medalist Hezly Rivera claimed bronze.
A second-year senior on the U.S. National Team, Hang's win prolongs a stellar start to the 2025 season. In addition to winning silver at the U.S. Winter Cup in February, the 17-year-old claimed gold on floor exercise, silver on beam, and bronze on vault at the 2025 Osijek World Cup.
Hang put together an impressive effort during Friday's joint-team qualification and all-around final. The future Florida Gator delivered the top scores on uneven bars and floor exercise, helping Team USA qualify in first for Saturday's team final and qualifying for all four individual event finals.
Her total score marks the highest score at a continental championships in 2025. With her result at today's meet, Hang is in contention for a spot on the team headed to the 2025 World Championships in Jakarta, Indonesia.
While the Washington native ran away with the all-around title, many expected 2024 Olympic team gold medalist Hezly Rivera to challenge for the win.
Though Rivera was strong on balance beam and floor, posting the highest mark on beam and the third-best on floor, a disastrous bar routine took the Olympian out of the gold medal race.
Rivera incurred two falls on her routine, resulting in an automatic two-point deduction. Despite the disappointing bar routine, Rivera claimed bronze in the all-around and will compete for gold in the balance beam final.
U.S. teammate Dulcy Caylor was just behind Rivera in the all-around, finishing fourth before the two-per-country rule. Caylor, a finalist at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials, posted the highest U.S. score on vault, but will not participate in the apparatus final due to not competing a second vault.
First-year senior Gabrielle Hardie delivered a nearly error-free effort across her three events on Friday. The 2024 U.S. junior silver medalist impressed with superior execution, qualifying for the event finals on balance beam and floor.
After tweaking her ankle in training, 2024 Olympic alternate Tiana Sumanasekera was limited only to beam in Panama City. Though she missed the event final due to the two-per-country rule, Sumanasekera delivered a strong performance to finish third on the event in qualifying.
The U.S. men and women enter Saturday's team finals as the top qualifiers. On Thursday, former Penn State gymnast Joshua Karnes clinched silver in the men's all-around behind Canadian Olympian Félix Dolci.
The men will take to the floor at 9:30 a.m. ET, and the women later at 2:30 p.m. The Panam Sports Channel will live-stream all events.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Associated Press
18 minutes ago
- Associated Press
This Date in Baseball - Astros are the first team to throw two immaculate innings in the same game
June 15 1902 — Corsicana defeated Texarkana 51-3 in a Texas League game. Nig Clark of Corsicana took advantage of the small park and hit eight homers. Some telegraph operators, thinking there was a mistake, reported the score as 5-3. 1925 — The Philadelphia Athletics went into the last half of the eighth inning trailing 15-4 and scored 13 runs to defeat Cleveland 17-15. 1938 — Four days after pitching a no-hitter against the Boston Braves, Johnny Vander Meer of the Cincinnati Reds pitched his second straight no-hit game, defeating the Dodgers 6-0 in the first night game played in Brooklyn. 1952 — The St. Louis Cardinals, down 11-0 entering the fifth inning, came back for a 14-12 triumph over the New York Giants in the first game of a doubleheader and set a National League record for best comeback. 1963 — San Francisco's Juan Marichal pitched a no-hitter against the Houston Colts for a 1-0 victory, the first Giants no-hitter since Carl Hubbell's in 1929. 1976 — The Pittsburgh Pirates and Houston Astros were 'rained in' at the Houston Astrodome as 10 inches of rain fell on the city. Only members of both teams were able to make it to the stadium. Umpires, fans and stadium personnel were unable to make it through the water. 1980 — Cleveland Indian Jorge Orta collected six hits, a double and five singles, and scored four times in a 14-5 triumph over the Minnesota Twins. Toby Harrah had seven RBIs. 1992 — Jeff Reardon broke Rollie Fingers' career save mark of 341 when he preserved a 1-0 victory for the Boston Red Sox with one scoreless inning against the New York Yankees. 2002 — A double in the fifth inning of Texas' 4-0 loss to Houston gave Rafael Palmeiro 1,000 career extra-base hits. He became the 25th major leaguer to reach that mark. 2016 — Miami's Ichiro Suzuki raised his career total in the Japanese and North American major leagues to 4,257, passing Pete Rose's record Major League Baseball total. Suzuki had two hits for the Marlins in a 6-3 loss to the San Diego Padres, Suzuki had 1,278 hits for Orix in Japan's Pacific League (1992-00) and has 2,979 with Seattle, the New York Yankees and Marlins. His first hit Wednesday was on a dribbler in the first. His second was a double into the right-field corner in the ninth. 2016 — Atlanta's Freddie Freeman hit for the cycle in a 9-8, 13-inning win over Cincinnati. 2018 — The Arizona Diamondbacks beat the staggering New York Mets 7-3. The freefalling Mets dropped four consecutive, 12 of 13 and 19 of 23. After starting the season 11-1, the Mets (28-38) went from 10 games over .500 to 10 games under earlier than any team in major league history. The previous mark was held by the 2011 Marlins, who did it in their 76th game. 2020 — The impasse over the resumption of the MLB season gets deeper, as CommissionerRob Manfred now states that there may not be a season at all. It was expected that he would decree a 50-game season, as allowed by the March 26th agreement between the MLBPA and owners, but he is now reluctant to do so. 2022 — The Astros are the first team to throw two immaculate innings in the same game, as Luis Garcia strikes out the side on nine pitches in the 2nd, and Phil Maton repeats the feat in the 7th. In both cases the three batters for the Rangers are the same: Nathaniel Lowe, Ezequiel Duran and Brad Miller. Garcia and Maton are respectively the 8th and 9th pitchers to accomplish the feat for Houston. _____
Yahoo
26 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Broncos roster: Trent Sherfield (No. 5) looking to win key special teams role
Broncos Wire's 90-man offseason roster series continues today with a look at eighth-year wide receiver Trent Sherfield, No. 5. Before the Broncos: Sherfield (6-1, 206 pounds) entered the league as an undrafted free agent out of Vanderbilt with the Arizona Cardinals in 2018. He spent time with five NFL teams before landing in Denver, most recently playing for the Minnesota Vikings last fall. The 29-year-old receiver has 86 career receptions for 1,013 yards and six touchdowns to go along with 1,252 career snaps on special teams. Advertisement Broncos tenure: Denver signed Sherfield to a two-year, $6 million contract this spring. After the team lost special teams ace Tremon Smith during free agency, Sherfield is among the candidates to fill a key role in the kicking game this fall. Chances to make the 53-man roster: Likely. Sherfield is not a lock, but he has a strong chance to make the squad thanks to his special teams contributions. Broncos coach Sean Payton has placed an emphasis on special teams since he arrived in 2023, and that will help Sherfield's chances of making the squad. Related: These 25 celebrities are Broncos fans. This article originally appeared on Broncos Wire: Denver Broncos: WR Trent Sherfield looks to win special teams role
Washington Post
30 minutes ago
- Washington Post
‘Kill yourself': Toxic mix of betting, social media fuels athlete abuse
Many nights after work, as people often do, Washington Nationals first baseman Nathaniel Lowe checks his social media accounts. Unlike most, however, Lowe must brace himself to find out which anonymous trolls, miscreants and provocateurs, at that very moment, want him dead. If the safe-word filters on his accounts do their job that night — and if Lowe happened to have excelled at his job, at least relative to the prop bets staked to his performance — the abuse might not be so bad. Otherwise?
