Individual vaulting medals awarded

Great Britain won its first individual gold medal in vaulting when Joanne Eccles turned in a technically strong performance in the individual freestyle competition.

"It's going to take a while for it to sink in," she said with tears in her eyes. "I'm a little bit stunned."

Germany's Antje Hill and Simone Wiegele were silver and bronze medal winners. U.S. vaulters Mary McCormick and Megan Benjamin rounded out the top five places.

"Joanne is an amazing competitor. She has really strong mental focus. She delivers very consistent performances," said Kerith Lemon, an American vaulter who won silver medals at the 1994 and 1998 World Equestrian Games. "She's elegant and graceful on the horse, and that gives her a bit of extra flair."

Technically, Eccles' freestyle routine was "nearly perfect," Lemon said. A six-time British female champion, Eccles has been vaulting since she was 8. She said her mother, Jane, helped choreograph her routine set to Sir Elton John's, Candle in the Wind. Sister Hannah is also a vaulter and competed earlier this week.

In the men's freestyle, Patric Looser of Switzerland won gold; Kai Vorberg of Germany, the 2006 gold medal winner in the World Games in Aachen, captured silver, and Nicolas Andreani of France won bronze.

Vorberg has been Looser's coach for five years. Looser, who lives and trains in Cologne, Germany, and is an 18-time Swiss vaulting champion and a two-time European champion, was overcome with emotion when he saw his score.

Vorberg performed to the German rock band Scorpion's version of Winds of Change, in a routine about the Berlin Wall coming down. Vorberg wanted to pay tribute to the United States for its role in helping to reunite Germany and make it a free country, he said.

A highly decorated vaulter, Vorberg first competed internationally in 1997, and has won 12 medals since 2003. He'll turn 29 in a week and a half.

"I am an old man," he said as his voice cracked. "It won't stay like this forever."

American Mary McCormick said she came to the competition wanting to do her best, and "I feel I did that. I'm not disappointed."

She hopes to compete in the 2014 Games in Normandy.

But next on her agenda: "It's going home and doing a lot of trail riding with Van Dyck." That's her horse, Sir Anthony Van Dyck, who performed with her at the Games.

This story was originally published October 10, 2010 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Individual vaulting medals awarded."