Women’s Groups Finals

LAKE BUENA VISTA (USA), FIG Office, April 18, 2012: It's fitting that Russian women's trio Aigul Shaikhutdinova, Ekaterina Stroynova and Ekaterina Loginova chose to defend their world title from 2010 using circus music.

The trio, just as poised and polished as any group from Cirque du Soleil, capitalized on going up last among the eight women's pairs in the final at the World Acro Championships, winning their second World title ahead of trios from Belgium and Belarus. The Russian trio tallied 28.653 points, including 9.500 for execution and 9.150 for artistic merit, to earn the gold medal.

Belgium's Sanne van Overberghe, Lara Scholler and Camille van Betsbrugge, who are coached by a former Soviet Acro pairs champion, performed an energetic and crowd-pleasing routine that had the highest difficulty of any pair that presented in finals. The Belgians were also the only trio beside Russia's to post scores above 9.000, earning 28.054 overall.

Belarussian trio Yuliya Khrupach, Hanna Kobyzeva and Julia Kovalenko posted 27.601 to win the bronze, edging Poland's Kinga Beker, Kinga Grzeskow and Kamila Kowalska, who showed excellent artistry and technical mastery but fell just shy of a medal. They scored 27.153 for fourth, ahead of groups from Australia, Portugal, the United States and Great Britain.