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Russia win Olympic group rhythmic gymnastics
SYDNEY, Sept 30 (AFP) - Russia won the Olympic group rhythmic gymnastics gold medal Saturday, ekeing out a win over silver medallists Belarus when the nail-biting final came down to a tie-break. Both the Russian and Belarussian teams recorded scores of 19.80 in the first round of competition - the five sets of clubs - setting up a showdown in the second and final rotation and leaving eventual bronze medallists Greece in third spot. But in the second round of competition - the two hoops and three ribbons - both the Russians and Belarussians again performed near-flawless routines and again recorded identical scores (19.70) for the two teams to be tied on 39.50. The gold medal was then awarded to Russia, the 199 world champions, as the result of a tie-break. Taking into consideration their high and low scores in the two exercises, the Russians scored 39.52 to the Belarussians' 39.50. The team event in rhythmic gymnastics was first introduced in Atlanta in 1996, 12 years after the individual all-around competition began in 1984. "Russia was instrumental in initiating the group performances," said Russian ribbon and hoops coach Valentina Ivanizkaya. "It was their dream to win." Crowd-pleasers Brazil were relegated to eighth position in the eight-team final as a result of strict, technical judging but coach Barbara Lafranchi said winning over the Sydney crowd had been a victory in itself. "We have all very good gymnasts," Lafranchi said. "The scoring is not fair at all. But we work for the public. If the public are happy, we win the gold medal." Russia and Belarus had lagged behind top qualifier Greece in the preliminary rounds, which saw Atlanta gold medallists Spain knocked out of the competition. But the qualifying scores were erased in the final, setting up the artistic duel between the five-gymnast teams from Russia and Belarussia. Russia is also a favorite for gold in the individual competition. Current world and three-time European individual champion Alina Kabaeva leads the individual competition going into Sunday's final with Belarussia's Yulia Raskina in second and fellow Russian Yulia Barsukova in third.
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