22. August 2004  
Olympic City Athens  
Artistic Gymnastics

PRIEVIEW: First Finals day of the Olympic gymnastics competitions

Apparatus Finals...

Today: Gymnastics highlights - part I !

The closing highlights of the Olymic artistic gymnastics competitions traditionally take place on Sunday (Aug. 22nd) and Monday (Aug. 23rd).

On Sunday the men compete in Athen's Olympic Hall on floor, pommel horse and rings,
the women start on vault and on uneven bars...
GYMmedia reports from about 7.00 pm CET on...
1st day, APPARATUS FINALS - Sunday, Aug. 22nd:
- Olympic Indoor Hall, from about 8.00 pm Greek local time on

>> On floor an exciting competition can be expected as the score differences in the qualification e.g. between the former World Champion Marian DRAGULESCU (ROM) and the 8th-ranked in the qualification, 2-time World Champion Jordan JOVTCHEV (BUL), were only 0.062 points!

>> On pommel horse it will be interesting to see if specialist Marius URZICA will be able to defend his gold medal from Sydney 2000 - he will have strong competitors today! Also on this event the differences in scores in the qualificaiton between rank 1 and 8 were less than 1 tenth!

>> On rings not only the whole of Greece will follow the duel between their hero Dimosthenis TAMPAKOS, who is in the unlucky position to start first in the final, and his strong competitors. Bulgaria's Jovtchev has reached also this final. He shares the World Championship title with Tampakos. Also Alexander SAFOSHKIN from Russia can be expected to be a strong competitor in this final...
The two Italians Matteo MORANDI - WCh's- bronze medalist 2003 - and the oldest competitor in this final, the former 'lord of the rings', Juri Chechi should not be overlooked for the top ranks of this final...
Women finals:
>> For the first time in history an Olympic Champion will be looked for on the new vaulting table 'PEGASES', which is an official competition apparatus since the World Championships 2001 in Ghent. In today's final Russia's Yelena Zamolodchikova certainly hopes to defend her gold medal from Sydney 2000. Four years ago she even managed to add another gold medal on floor afterwards...

>> Another highlight will be the women's uneven bars final. The 2nd- ranked gymnast from the all-around Swetlana Chorkina could be able to become the first gymnast in the history of women's artistic gymnastics to win the 3rd gold medal in a row on this apparatus. (Polina Astachova from Russia managed to win the gold medal twice, in Rome 1960 and Tokio 1964).