Lexington, KY – Vaulting competition at CHIO Aachen in Germany concluded Sunday afternoon with the American contingent proving itself to be near the top of the world game.
U.S. Pas de Deux vaulters made an especially strong showing. Devon Maitozo and Rosalind Ross finished in 2nd place with an overall score of 8.372 and had by far the best score (9.100) for their artistic execution. Devon and Rosalind were both members of the Gold Medal winning team at the World Equestrian Games (WEG) in Kentucky in 2010. Devon was also the coach of that team and Individual Gold Medalist at WEG in Rome in 1998. Finishing 3rd with an overall score of 8.300 was another member of that WEG 2012 Gold Medal winning team, Blake Dahlgren, and his partner Megan Benjamin. Megan was the Individual Gold Medalist at WEG in Aachen in 2006. The winning pair, Great Britain’s formidable Joanne Eccles and Hannah Eccles, was the only other pair to score above 8.0.
2012 will be the first time that the Pas de Deux event is part of the World Vaulting Championships. Both U.S. pairs that competed in Aachen will represent the U.S. at the World Championships.
U.S. squads also performed well in team and Nations Cup competition. In the team competition that concluded Saturday the squad from Mt. Eden Sun finished third behind two German teams and the Woodside Vaulters finished 5th. Because of those strong finishes both squads were invited back for Nations Cup competition on Sunday.
In Vaulting Nations Cup competition each nation’s team consists of a “squad”, a female individual, and a male individual. Each performs a freestyle routine and the three scores are added together for a total score. The team of Mt. Eden Sun, Alicen Divita, and Gabe Aniello finished 4th behind two German teams and an Austrian team. The Woodside Vaulters, Mary McCormick, and Kristian Roberts finished 6th.
The U.S. sent a full contingent to CHIO Aachen: two squads (Mt. Eden and Woodside), two pas de deux partnerships (Devon Maitozo and Rosalind Ross; Blake Dahlgren and Megan Benjamin), three individual female vaulters (Alicen Divita, Mary McCormick, and Katharine Wick) and two individual male vaulters (Gabe Aniello and Kristian Roberts). In total 21 vaulters represented the U.S. at CHIO Aachen.
CHIO Aachen is one of the largest and most important vaulting competitions in the world. It was the final major competition before the upcoming World Championships in Le Mans, France.
See vaulting results from CHIO Aachen here.
Follow the U.S. Vaulting Team here.