 |
Russia, Romania Expected to Dominate Gymnastics Worlds
GHENT, Belgium, October 26 (Xinhuanet) -- With the five-time world men's team champions China sending their second-string athletes to the World Gymnastics Championships, the team gold medal is now open for Russia while Romania is on the way to its fifth consecutive women's team title.
The Russians and Romanians will be so dominant that only unforced errors by themselves may give away the coveted team golds.
Russia's Alexei Nemov, the winner of two gold, one silver and two bronze medals at the Sydney Olympic Games, will spearhead the Russian squad which also includes veterans Alexei Bondarenko and Yevgeny Podgorny, European champions Georgy Grebenkov, Yevgeny Krylov and Yuri Tikhonovsky.
The Russians, regular second-place finishers after China at the championships since the 1990s, will find themselves in a class of their own if the Ukrainian team makes any error in Ghent.
Ukraine, squeezed out of the top six in the 1999 world championships, surged back in Sydney and won a team silver medal behind China, but well enough to beat Russia, 230.306 to 230.019.
Though Sydney team champion China enjoys a deep talent pool, its young athletes are long shots for a medal except Xiao Qin, a pommel horse specialist tipped as a medal contender in the eight- member Chinese squad.
The 17-year-old Xiao could perform two routines on the pommel with the Start Value of 10 points while most of the Chinese Olympic champions couldn't excel in one.
The all-conquering Romanian women aim at adding their fifth straight world title to the Sydney triumph as pixie Andreea Raducan, stripped of her all-around gold in Sydney for taking two cold pills given by her team doctor, faces a battle of revenge.
Raducan, 18, has to prove herself as a real champion and a role model to her younger teammates, Loredana Boboc, Andrea Ulmeanu, Silvia Stroescu, Monica Sabou and Sabina Cojocar.
Cajocar and Stroescu, both 16, outshone Raducan to share the women's all-around title at the national championships this year with Raducan finishing third.
With Sydney uneven bars titlist Svetlana Khorkina's grace and flair, gymnastics powerhouse Russia is also looking for a gold medal to turn over its silver-medal fate to Romania in recent years, and it is the only force that can snap Romanian's hope in vain.
With a height of 1.65 meters as a Goliath in the elfin world of gymnastics, Khorkina is a master of putting together a routine of difficulty and artistry and can always medal at any event.
The Russian lineup is consisted of Yekaterina Privalova, Sydney Olympic bronze medalist on beam, Lyudmila Yezhova, newly-crowned World University Games all-around champion, veteran Yelena Zamolodchikova and young talents Maria Zasypkina and Natalia Ziganshina.
In This Section
|