University of Minnesota head men’s gymnastics coach Mike Burns has been selected as one of two assistant coaches for the United States Men's Gymnastics Team that will compete at the 2007 World Gymnastics Championships, Sept. 1-9, in Stuttgart, Germany. Former Golden Gopher standout Guillermo Alvarez was picked as one of the six members of the World team after placing second in the all-around competition at the VISA Championships last weekend in San Jose, Calif.

“It’s a great honor to be selected as one of the assistant coaches for the World team,” Burns, the 2007 USA Gymnastics Men’s Coach of the Year, said. “I received a call from World Team head coach Kevin Mazeika who informed me that I was selected as one of two assistant coaches for the team. Needless to say that was an awesome phone call.”

The 2007 World Championships is the qualifying event for the 2008 Olympic Games. The top 12 teams from the Worlds will advance to the Team Competition at the Beijing Olympics. The competition in Stuttgart will be fierce with at least 15 teams having a legitimate shot at the top 12 spots.

The 2007 World team consists of Alvarez, David Durante, Jonathan Horton, Sasha Artemev, Kevin Tan, and Sean Golden. Alvarez, Horton, Artemev, and Tan were members of the 2006 World team that competed in Aarhus, Denmark last October, while Durante was the 2006 team alternate. Mark Williams, head coach at the University of Oklahoma, was named the other assistant coach for the World Team.

The team will depart for Germany on Saturday, Aug. 25. The competition will take place in the Hans-Martin-Scheyler-Halle in Stuttgart, Germany.