Bar none

Ivankov confirms he is complete gymnast with another Goodwill gold

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Posted: Friday July 24, 1998 01:53 AM

Ivankov won his fourth medal, including the all-around gold

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Ivan Ivankov confirmed on Thursday he is the world's most complete male gymnast by taking gold on the high bar and silver in the parallel at the Goodwill Games.

The 23-year-old from Belarus medaled in each of the four events in which he competed this week.

"I am very happy with how I performed here, but now I want to rest," he said. "Everybody is tired. It is the end of a long season."

Ivankov surmounted his fatigue on Thursday with several difficult release moves on the high bar event to win with 9.725 points.

He defeated close friend Alexei Nemov from Russia and Sergei Fedorchenko of Kazakhstan who finished second and thrid respectively.

In the other men's final, Ivankov won silver with a smooth performance on the parallel bars. He was bettered only by Chinese Huang Xu who scored 9.725 with a routine that featured three release moves and another stuck dismount.

"I'm very happy to win, but I feel sorry because in this important event, our team won just one medal," he said.

Trent Wells of Keizer, Oregon, thought he had a silver medal in the men's parallel bars but wound up with no medal at all. Judges twice changed scores after reviewing routines and dropped Wells from a tie for second to fourth

The judging seemed to be less political than earlier in the week, when visiting coaches and athletes were privately complaining that the U.S. athletes were getting higher scores than they deserved.

Goodwill Games gymnastics officials reported on Thursday that a delegate from the Romanian team had threatened on Wednesday night to pull out of the meeting. But, as of Thursday night, no Romanian athletes had been withdrawn from this weekend's mixed pairs event.

In the rhythmic competition, Alina Kabayeva of Russia won the all-around gold, leading each of the four disciplines. Yelena Vitrichenko of Ukraine was second and Yevgeniya Pavlina of Belarus third. The United States' Kate Jeffress finished last.

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China's Huang Xu scored 9.725 to win the parallel bars   • Start(3.41 M .MOV) Ivankov wins the high bar with a 9.725 routine (3.57 M) Click here for the latest audio and video
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