Romania and the United States look set to duel again for gold in the women's artistic gymnastics after dominating team qualifying Sunday
Published:
16 August 2004 y., Monday
Romania, the 2000 champion, qualified the highest with 152.436 points while the Americans scored 151.848, stumbling to turn a 0.99-point lead halfway through the meet into a deficit of 0.588.
The Americans are the reigning world champions and the Romanians won gold four years ago in Sydney.
China, which finished third in Sydney, wasn't far behind, finishing with 151.085 points after competing in the evening session. Russia, the 2000 silver medalist, was fourth in qualifying with 149.420.
Ukraine, France, Spain and Australia also qualified for the teams final -- with Brazil, Canada, Britain and North Korea missing out.
"Other teams have more experience but we will do our best," China coach Lu Shanzhen said. "The Chinese will be the best because we are the best team in the world. In the team final we will do better than we did today."
Sunday's preliminaries involved six gymnasts, five performing on each apparatus and the top four scores counting. The system changes for Tuesday's team finals to a "6-3-3" -- six gymnasts on a team, three compete on each event, three scores count.
Šaltinis:
sportsillustrated.cnn.com
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.
The most popular articles
The official web site for the European Championship for Cadets is now online at www.eurobasketrivas.com
more »
Saint-Etienne: Turkey did just enough to beat Colombia 2-1 Saturday and clinch third place in the Confederations Cup
more »
Niko Kovac scored a late header Wednesday as Croatia beat Estonia 1-0 in a sluggish Group 8 European Championship qualifier
more »
The Russian Olympic assembly on Friday unanimously nominated Moscow as a candidate for hosting the summer Olympic Games in 2012
more »
Canada and Sweden have a chance to set things right, but must depend on backup goalies in the title game at hockey's world championships
more »
A late goal gave Latvia an upset 2-1 victory over Russia while undefeated Slovakia rolled over Austria 7-1 at the world ice hockey championship on Sunday
more »
The Czech Republic and Slovakia sealed top spots in their respective groups with tough victories at hockey's World Championships on Wednesday
more »
England fans are set to be banned from travelling to the high-risk Euro 2004 decider in Turkey as part of a new Football Association drive to end the violence and racism which plague the national team's games
more »
The United States opens the hockey world championships Saturday against Denmark
more »
European soccer's governing body UEFA said on Tuesday it could allow Azerbaijan to compete in EURO 2004 qualifying matches despite the country's suspension from international competition by FIFA
more »