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
Spain beat Portugal and Paraguay beat Japan to progress to the quarter finals of the World Cup in South Africa.
more »
Forget the World Cup in South Africa, for footballers willing to get down and dirty, the yearly Swamp Soccer in Scotland is the next best thing.
more »
Brazilians are in the mood to celebrate from Rio to Johannesburg as their team progresses to the quarter finals of the World Cup with a 3-0 win over Chile.
more »
With a 2-1 victory, their fourth win at the World Cup, the Netherlands progessed to a quarter-final match against Brazil.
more »
France striker Nicolas Anelka has been sent home from the World Cup after an expletive-filled tirade at his coach.
more »
A South African church throws open its doors for homeless people to watch the World Cup.
more »
With their own team failing to make it to the World Cup in South Africa, a group of Chinese fans are supporting North Korea.
more »
Hundreds of security guards at the World Cup went on strike over low wages and working conditions.
more »
Soccer fever grips India as the FIFA World Cup 2010 starts in South Africa.
more »
World Cup fans defend the noisy vuvuzelas, following reports that they could be banned.
more »