Reigning U.S. all-around champion John Orozco was pleased with his first gymnastics meet in 11 months at a national qualifier Saturday.
Orozco, who tore his left ACL and suffered meniscus damage at a post-Olympics tour stop in October, didn’t make a full return to competition. He performed on four of six apparatus -- excluding floor exercise and vault.
The Bronx native tied for the highest score out of 45 men on still rings (15.1), tied for fifth on high bar (14.85), took sixth on the pommel horse (14.15) and tied for 13th on parallel bars (13.65).
Olympic all-around bronze medalist Danell Leyva won with a six-event total of 87, including the highest scores on high bar (15.85) and parallel bars (15.5).
Leyva and Orozco are expected to lead the field at the U.S. Championships in Hartford, Conn., in August. The world championships are in Antwerp, Belgium, from Sept. 30-Oct. 6, where there is no team event.
It’s tough to discern much from Saturday’s scores, but perhaps looking at the level of difficulty offers a clue at just how close Orozco is to his 2012 self.
His highest difficulty scores from the London Olympics qualification and all-around final for pommel horse, still rings, parallel bars and high bar were 6.4, 6.3, 6.6 and 6.7.
On Saturday, those difficulty scores were 6.6, 6.4, 6.8 and 6.0. A net difference of -.2. Take from that what you will, but Orozco appears to have left the gym in good spirits.
I'm alive....success!
— John Orozco Gymnastics (@JohnOrozcoGym) July 14, 2013
