Danell Leyva wins bronze in men’s gymnastics individual all-around

LONDON -- Three-time world champion Kohei Uchimura of Japan earned his first Olympic all-around gold medal and American Danell Leyva fought back to earn the bronze medal after a soaring routine on the horizontal bar in the men’s individual gymnastics competition.

John Orozco from the Bronx finished eighth.

The silver medal went to surprisingly steady Marcel Nguyen of Germany.

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Orozco and the Cuban-born Leyva fumbled their way through their routines on the pommel horse, the second of their six rotations, leaving them both near the bottom of the 24-man field.

Uchimura took the lead for good after the third rotation when he landed a vault that scored 16.266. Even though he omitted a release move on his horizontal bar set and nearly fell to his knees on a floor exercise tumbling pass, Uchimura’s level of difficulty and execution was too good for the rest of the field.

Uchimura saluted the crowd and began receiving congratulations from other competitors and teammates even before the last man finished. His floor exercise score of 15.100 was more than good enough to guarantee gold.

Leyva’s climb up was punctuated by his confident turn on the horizontal bar, his last event, that was scored a 15.700. After he landed, Leyva leapt into the arms of his stepfather and coach, Yin Alvarez.

Uchimura’s winning total was 92.690, with Nguyen earning 91.031 and Leyva scoring 90.695.

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