Eights are not enough

Russians struggle at world gymnastics championship

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) -- By the time the Russians got done flopping and flailing, the U.S. women's gold medal hopes didn't look so horrendous, after all.

The Olympic silver medalists made the Americans' struggles in the preliminaries at the World Gymnastics Championships look downright minuscule Monday, with major troubles on all four events. The Russians had to count a score in the 8s in all but one of their four events, and finished with 145.572 points.

That left them a whopping two points behind the United States, which didn't win any style points in its preliminaries round Sunday night. Defending world champion Romania and China were competing Monday night.

The top eight teams advance to Wednesday's finals, and the top 12 secure spots in next year's Athens Olympics.

"There was a little bit too much pressure for the team, and they didn't perform what they're capable of doing," said Russia's coach, Leonid Arkaev.

"When the team competes for the medals, it'll be a completely different look."

That's the good news for the Russians. In the team finals, scores are wiped out and each squad puts three gymnasts on each event, with all three scores counting. In prelims, five athletes go, and four of their scores count.

"I think in the finals, we'll be much better," Arkaev said. "It's fighting for medals."

The Americans had golden hopes when they arrived in Anaheim, bringing a squad many said was even stronger than the Magnificent Seven in 1996. Then world beam champ Ashley Postell got the flu and vault specialist Annia Hatch blew out her knee.

Suddenly, the Americans were scrambling. And the disorder showed on the floor Sunday night. Of the six U.S. gymnasts, only alternate Chellsie Memmel made it through the night without any problems.

National champion Courtney Kupets slipped up twice on her floor exercise. Veteran Tasha Schwikert showed very little of her trademark flash, falling on floor and banging her feet against the mat during her bars routine.

Carly Patterson, who has won every event she's been healthy enough to enter since last summer, fell on her beam dismount.

"Obviously, last night wasn't our best performance and we struggled," USA Gymnastics president Bob Colarossi said. "But we look forward to putting our three best against the rest of the world's three best. It's all about execution."

Surely, the Americans couldn't have been intimidated by Russia's scores.

The Russians were the silver medalists at the past three world championships, and they have one of the sport's all-time greats in Svetlana Khorkina. The two-time world champ has won an incredible 21 world medals, but has yet to win team gold at either worlds or the Olympics.

That's not going to change unless the Russians clean things up in the finals. They struggled from the start Monday, as Yelena Anochina, the first competitor on the vault, the first event, stumbled backward on her landing and banged into the horse.

The Russians salvaged the rest of the event with four scores of 9.2 or better, and then moved to uneven bars, normally one of their strengths. This time, though, it was a disaster.

Anochina went first again and promptly fell again. Tossing herself backward over the bar on a release move, she couldn't hang on and landed on her backside, tumbling backward.

"It was a bad influence for all the other girls," Arkaev said. "It was like a chain reaction."

Ludmila Ehova, the reigning world bronze medalist on bars, was up next, and she dropped off, too. Anna Pavlova, the European junior champ, stayed on for her full routine, but skipped many of moves and scored just an 8.712.

Khorkina briefly stopped the train wreck. The five-time world champ on uneven bars had a grim look of determination on her face as she stepped up to the apparatus, and she came through with a beautiful routine.

She glided from bar to bar with ease, her legs always straight and her toes perfectly pointed. Doing a handstand on the lower bar, she launched herself up and into the air, flipping herself around to catch the high bar as effortlessly as most people climb a curb.

Her score of 9.450 was on the low side. But compared to everything else the Russians were seeing, it may as well have been a 10.0.

They didn't fare much better on beam. And the floor exercise was ugly, with Yelena Zamolodchikova, Khorkina and Anochina all stepping out of bounds.

Anochina's miss made her 0-for-4, and her teammates couldn't bear to watch it, turning away before the 14-year-old even finished.

"This was her first championships and her first trip to the United States," Arkaev said. "It was a big stretch for her."

 

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