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Krukov wins men's title Olaru takes women's all-around at gymnastics worlds
Posted: Thursday October 14, 1999 07:48 PM
TIANJIN, China (AP) -- Russian gymnast Nicolay Krukov only had to keep his cool at the end. Romanian teenager Maria Olaru had to be outstanding. American Blaine Wilson came up 0.001 point short. That left veteran Krukov with the men's all-around world championship, newcomer Olaru with the women's, and Wilson just shy of a medal. Still, Wilson's fourth-place finish Thursday was the best by a U.S. male gymnast since Kurt Thomas' silver medal in 1979. Wilson was 10th two years ago. "These are all stepping stones for Sydney," the 25-year-old four-time national champion said of next year's Olympics. "And if this is what it's going to be like, then I'm just going to have to focus on the little things." One thing the three had in common was recent injury problems. Because of a wrist injury in August, the 20-year-old Krukov was not able to resume training until a month before the World Championships. "I didn't believe it could happen until the very last minute," the veteran of Russia's 1996 Olympic gold medal team said. "I was probably more surprised than the rest of the people." A year ago, Olaru underwent knee surgery and had to stop training for nearly four months, said her coach, Maria Bitang. "Maria thought that she would never be able to compete again... Once she returned to the gym... She was more motivated and worked very hard to recover." Wilson has had recurring problems with her right shoulder that underwent surgery in 1998. "I'm a little weaker than I should be." But, he said Thursday, "when you raise your hand and you walk out there and you do your stuff, you forget about all that. It doesn't matter." Krukov built his score with a 9.725 on the vault and 9.712 on the parallel bars, and held a slight lead going into his last routine, the floor exercises. His clean routine earned him 9.437 and a 57.485 total. Japan's Naoya Tsukahara, the 1997 bronze medalist, followed him on the floor, scored 9.500 and ended at 57.337. Bulgarian Jordan Jovtchev, who has lived in the United States since the 1996 Olympics, had a chance to win, but scored just 9.350 in his last round, the parallel bars. Wilson, meanwhile, finished with 9.487 on the pommel horse and came out with 57.211 to 57.212 for Jovtchev, whose best previous all-around finish at a World Championships was 15th in 1994. "All I had to do was stick rings and I probably would almost have won," said Wilson, who scored just 9.325 in that event. Ivan Ivankov of Belarus, the 1995 and 1997 champion, went off the high bar on his opening routine, then landed on his seat at the end. He withdrew with a pulled groin muscle. Russia's Alexei Bondarenko, the 1997 silver medalist, finished 10th at 56.737. Lu Yufu, a member of China's world champion team, finished fifth at 57.086. In the women's competition, Romanian Andreea Raducan, whose 9.837 floor exercise was the best performance of the day, finished fifth, ahead of China's Dong Fangxiao and Huang Mandan, and American Elise Ray. Olaru and Karpenko went into their last of the four events, the vault, with Karpenko leading 29.212 to 29.149. After Karpenko scored 9.493, the 17-year-old Olaru topped that with 9.625 -- the second-best vault of the day -- and took the gold 38.774 to 38.705. Olaru also had the second-best floor exercise -- 9.825 -- plus 9.737 on the balance beam and 9.587 on the uneven bars. "I don't believe it," Olaru said. "Are you sure I am the world champion?" She won, she said, because "I was simply more stable." Olaru and the 16-year-old Raducan were the top two scorers in qualifying and the team finals, where Romania won its fourth consecutive world team title. Coming into her final routine on the uneven bars in fourth place, Raducan scored 9.612 for a total of 38.617. But Zamolodchikova scored 9.787 on the floor, and Produnova then beat that with 9.812, giving Zamolodchikova a total of 38.687 and Produnova 38.673. Injuries plagued the American team. National champion Kristen Maloney had to drop out after spraining her knee in a fall from the bars Wednesday. It was on her right leg, where she had a stress fracture last year. Ray competed with a sprained finger on her right hand, also sustained in practice Wednesday. She finished eighth with 38.017, including 9.662 on the floor, just 0.001 point behind China's Huang. "It was such an exciting experience," said the 17-year-old Ray, sixth in the U.S. championships this year. "You really can't know that until you're really out there, and I just want to do it all over again." Vanessa Atler was hampered by ankle pains from an injury at the Pan Am Games this summer. She finished 31st in the 36-woman field with 35.731, then hobbled off with her left ankle packed in ice. She said "it just hurt real bad" on every push-off and landing. Both Ray and Atler were competing in their first World Championships.
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