17. August 2003  
Anaheim/USA  
Artistic Gymnastics

Men s Olympic Qualification. USA on Top!

German's happy at last...

After the Belarus (titleholder) and the German disaster yesterday now the men's team finished their qualification of the 37th Worlds today.
Best team in the very last of the ten subdivisionS was host USA with a score of 227,743 points.
The Japanese team led a long time, scored 227,046 points, and came on second place, followed by Olympic Champion China (225,119), Romania (224,770), Korea, Russia, France, Ukraine, Canada, Spain, Italy and Germany...that are all qualified nations for the Olympics 2004.
Best in all-around was the Japanese Naoya Tsukahara with a score of 57,224 points, followed by Paul Hamm (USA) and Yong, Tae-Yung (KOR)

YANG, Wei, Olympic Team Champion and AA silver medallist 2000
(C) Photos by Tom Theobald

MEN's TEAM QUALIFICATION

The U.S. men won the preliminaries in the World Gymnastics Championships on Sunday, serving notice they're no longer the doormats they've been the past two decades.
The men would like to build on their finish, too. Fortunately for them, it was a lot more solid then the women's.
Rebounding after a rocky start, they let everyone know they're not the same guys who haven't won a team medal at the Olympics since Bart Conner and his Golden Gang in 1984. They finished prelims with 227.743 points, almost seven-tenths of a point ahead of second-place Japan.
After struggling through the floor exercise, their first event, the U.S. men found more trouble on the pommel horse. Blaine Wilson peeled off of it, and Morgan Hamm landed his dismount on his head.
But Brett McClure settled the team with a solid pommel horse routine, and the Americans went into full show-off mode. They didn't score anything lower than a 9.2 the rest of the way, and were the only team to finish in the top 10 in every event.
The team of China, the gold medalists at the Sydney Olympics, was third and Romania was fourth. Perennial powerhouse Russia was in sixth.
The most stunning finish was Belarus, who faltered after losing a gymnast to an Achilles' tendon injury midway through Saturday night's competition. The world champs not only missed the team finals, they missed an Olympic spot by just 0.012 points...behind the lucky Germans on 12!

Dragulescu: Highest score on vault 9,825

>> ...topical Standings

At the firts day the Japanese men's team topped Romania by over two points.
Also before the last subdivision, Romania's Marian Dragulescu was ranked second behind Tsukahara. Tsukahara's teammates Hiroyuki Tomita and Takehiro Kashima ranked third and fourth.
Marian Dragulescu (Romania) earned the highest score of the day to this moment: 9.825 on the vault.

Romania made a strong rotation on vault, but had some difficulty on the parallel bars, high bar, and also floor exercises.....

But than came China in the fourth subdivision: 'They did great,' coach Yubin Huang said. 'That's what we wanted, safe and smooth.' The Chinese had 225.119 points, almost two points behind Japan. Romania and Russia, were third and fourth. Ukraine, the silver medalists in Sydney, struggled to finish fifth.
Belarus won't get to defend its world title, and is barely hanging on to a spot for Athens. The Belarussians lost a gymnast to an Achilles injury midway through Saturday night's competition, and they dropped to ninth Sunday with another round of teams to go.
The German team had a disaster not only on high bar, but also on parallel bars and pommel horse (219,132) and fall down behind Japan, Romania, Canada and Spain on a temporary fifth place...
First the athletes of coach Andreas Hirsch had no hopes, to get an Olympic ticket for Athens, but than the defending titleholder Belarus relapsed - no more chance for the Olympics.....?

Nemov - top on 4 apparatus

... and it was not a surprise, that Russia ranked third (now fourth)after the 6th subdivision.
- Nemov performed 4 exercises only, without pommel and rings, but he scored a top serie: FX 9,537; VA 94,87; PB 9,687; HB 9,775 !
- Krylov crashed on floor, but Russia scored top on this apparatus,temporary: 37,499.
- Only Bondarenko and Podgorni started on all six apparatuses, Podgorni scored 55,435 as the best Russian;

>> ... topical team standings
... before the 10th and last subdivision

Naoya Tsukahara, best in AA

Summary of the first Day
JAPAN - TEAM of 1st DAY in ANAHEIM ...
Japan reeled off a number of intricate routines to finish ahead of European champions Romania on the opening day of this Worlds.
Japan - placed fourth overall in the 2000 Sydney Olympics - had 227.046 points while Romania had 224.770 points in the men's qualifying competition.
Japan was led by Naoya Tsukahara, who had the best all-around score of the day with a 57.224 points after the six events.
'My floor routine was very good,' Tsukahara said. 'I am not sure how I will do in the finals, but my confidence is high right now.'

Tsukahara was runner-up at the 1999 worlds which were held just prior to the Sydney Olympics where he placed a disappointing 18th overall.
'I have been working hard in practice,' said Tsukahara, the son of Japanese legend Mitsuo Tsukahara. 'If you aren't feeling good mentally you can't show your skill so I am trying to stay positive.'
Tsukahara is hoping for a strong showing in Anaheim and to carry that confidence over to next year's Olympics in Athens.
Japan is also looking to re-establish itself in the world after not sending a team to the last full-size world championships in Belgium in 2001 because of security concerns following the Sept 11 terror attacks.
Japan once dominated the Worlds by winning the men's team gold medal five times in a row from 1962 to 1978 and also in the Olympics from 1960 to 1976.
Romania is considered one of the favourites to medal in Anaheim after capturing the European title in Patras 2002.
Romania has built its team around Marius Urzica and Marian Dragulescu, who both hold Olympic and world titles, while Dan Potra is the reigning European all-around champion.
Urzica showed Saturday why he is the defending world champion in the pommel horse, winning the qualifying event with a superb score of 9.775 points.
The best Romanian was Dragulescu, who finished with an all-around score of 56.650.
In third was Olympic bronze medallist Russia (223.380 points) while Canada (220.617 points) sneaked into fourth. Spain (220.332 points) rounded out the top five.
The 2001 world champion Belarus struggled to 219.120 points and placed seventh, same problems had the German squad on sixth place!
Canada pulled off the biggetst surprise of the day, winnning their six-team qualification round and almost certainly booking a spot in the Athens Olympics. Canada finished with a 220.617 points in their group to place ahead Germany (219.132) which finished in 10th in the Sydney Olympics and ranked 13th in Ghent 2002.
'I am on cloud nine,' said Canada coach Tony Smith. 'We were under pressure and we exceeded expectations. Our guys are peaking at the right time. It's amazing.'

The Russian and Belarus teams suffered key achilles injuries on Saturday during the floor routines:
Belarus' Dimitri Kasparovich lost his footing and hurt his left Achilles, also Russia's Sergey Kohorokhordin, when he fell awkwardly. The status of both athletes is uncertain as they will undergo more tests Sunday to see if they are able to continue in the event.
The remainder of the men's teams compete on Sunday, including host USA and 2000 Olympic gold medallist China.


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