Khorkina beats Dutch challenge

PATRAS, Greece (AP) -- Russia's Svetlana Khorkina took all-around gold at the women's European Gymnastics Championships on Saturday, narrowly capturing the title from the Netherlands' Verona Van de Leur.

The Russian veteran, who also holds the current all-around title in world competition, won with 37.592 points. She became the first athlete since Romania's Nadia Comaneci to win three European titles.

Van de Leur finished with 37.542, and Ukraine's Alona Kvasha won bronze with 36.405.

It was Van de Leur's first appearance in a European Championships. The 16-year-old led after the first rotation with a 9.318 vault.

But Khorkina, 23, pulled ahead in the second round with a trademark performance in the uneven bars that earned her the competition's highest score of 9.787.

"I'm tired but happy with myself," Khorkina said. She thanked coach Leonid Arkaev for helping her get into shape after "health problems" which she did not specify.

"I'm a better athlete than what I performed here today," Khorkina said. "I wasn't my true self today."

Van de Leur said that even with her narrow loss, she wasn't upset at missing gold.

"I didn't expect it," she said. "I'm very glad with the silver medal."

The last competitor in the floor exercise, Alona Kvasha, scored 9.375. The Ukrainian took bronze from Russia's Natalia Ziganshina, who performed just before her. Ziganshina earned 36.280 points for fourth place.

Joana Petrovschi of Romania, her country's only competitor, placed fifth with 36.274 points.

Romania's Olympic squad, which won team gold at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, was absent from European competition because of injuries, its coach said earlier this week.

Octavio Belou said the team withdrew because "our priority is the world championship and Olympic Games."

"That's why we preferred to be loose on our athletes instead of being too pushy. Our goal is to win the first position."

The European Championships are being held at Demetrios Tophalos stadium in the port of Patras, 210 kilometers (130 miles) west of Athens. Individual events take place Sunday.

The men's finals will be held next weekend.

 

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