|
 |   |
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Video Plus Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities 
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE
|  |
Russia's Barsukova wins gold Posted: Sunday October 01, 2000 12:00 AMUpdated: Monday November 13, 2000 1:36 PM
SYDNEY, Australia (CNNSI.com) - Russia's Yulia Barsukova performed flawlessly to win the individual all-around gold medal. Yulia Raskina of Belarus took silver. Overwhelming favorite Alina Kabaeva of Russia committed an error the judges couldn't ignore and finished third. Kabaeva was in the lead on the second rotation when she flipped the hoop skyward, but watched it land and skid well out of bounds. She scored a 9.641 on the routine -- well below the 9.925s she had been scoring -- and fell in a hole she couldn't escape. The judges gave Kabaeva the highest scores of the meet, a pair of 9.950s on ball and ribbon routines later, but that didn't move the defending world and European champion past the leaders. Thus, a rare upset in the world of rhythmic gymnastics, where far more egregious errors have failed to cost past Olympic champions. It could be a sign that this sport is shaping up, in the wake of a recent scandal in which several judges were disciplined and not allowed to work the Olympics. The beneficiary was Barsukova, a 21-year-old who has performed at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow. Her best previous finish was third at the world championships that Kabaeva won last year. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
|
