Women s Qualification: China in front of Romania and USA

Carly Patterson (USA)

CHINESE Women's Team is on top (148,671) after strong rotations of the team qualifications of the World Championships in Anaheim/USA.
So it was a little surprise, that titleholder ROMANIA (148,120) ranked on second place only, in front of the long time leadung U.S girls on third (147,697).
Russia and Spain together on fifth place, than Australia, Brazil, Great Britain, France, Canada and - another surprise - North Korea - are the twelve nations, qualified for the Olympic Games 2004 in Athens.
Germany (13th), but specially the Dutch team, are the unlucky losers in this first important decision of these Worlds...

Hollie VISE from the leading U.S. Team
(C) Photos by Tom Theobald

Georgia Eremia (ROM)

WOMEN's TEAM QUALIFICATION

EVENT REVIEW by FIG, Philippe Silacci / FIG
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Women’s Qualifications- Monday, 18 August 2003
Subdivision 7: 7.00pm-9.00pm
(New Zealand, Great Britain, Poland, Venezuela, Finland, China)

“Dream Team on Beam!”
>> China moved into first place in the Qualification competition with an incredible performance on Beam (38.224)!!
On A.Bars they are also the World leaders!
>> Great Britain were the real surprise of the Subdivision. They hit every exercise going “20 for 20” and their Floor exercises were praised by many experts including the FIG President Bruno Grandi- congratulations to Zoltan Jordanov and Corina Morosan, the team coaches, on the teams Olympic Qualification!

Ludmilla Eshova (RUS)

Zoltan Jordanov:“Our dream has come true! It was a great day for us and I am proud with the achievement of our girls- apart from Beth Tweddle all of them are debutants in World Championships! Hard work has paid back!”

Also New Zealand have made good progress. Finland had problems with pre-competition injuries. Poland, after a good start on Vault struggled.

Subdivision 8 - the last:
(Sri Lanka, MG7 (Cameroon, Guatemala), Australia, Switzerland, Columbia, Ukraine)
It was obviously up to two of the most elegant teams in these Championships, Ukraine and Australia, to make the final “corrections” in the Olympic Qualification List!
>> Ukraine opened with very strong Vault and scored 37.011. Aljona Kvasha with 9.225 average may have reached Vault Final.
As may Krasnynska displace Khorkina from the U.Bars final, after having scored 9.537. Yarotska – 9.525, also on Bars!

Very impressive on Floor (36.736, second best result, after Romania), the Ukrainians finished the competition in fourth position, making it very clear that medals in the Team Final are within their reach!

Australia started well on Beam (36.887), but after their Floor (35.386), they were almost 2 marks behind Ukraine at the half way stage. They also had difficulties on Bars (36.011), which led them to the 7th place in the Qualification ranking.

The audience gave wonderful support to Sri Lanka and whatever their level, they will go home filled with joy and pride and definitely, a part of our gymnastics family.
Switzerland are to be congratulated for the progress they have made with their girls.
Unluckiest looser in Anaheim: Germany - 0.040 behind PRK! (Ironically, last night the Men’s team of Germany put Belarus in a similar position, they lost their Olympic qualification by 0.012!)
>> Newcomers, compared to Sydney 2000: Brazil and People’s Republic of Korea (PRK).
Source: fig / silacci

>> SUBDIVISIONS COVERAGE by Host:

>> SUBDIVISION 8 / Gruppe 8 ... finished!

>> SUBDIVISION 7 / Gruppe 7 ...ready!>
>> SUBDIVISION 6 / Gruppe 6 ...ready!
>> SUBDIVISION 5 / Gruppe 5 ...ready!
-- SUBDIVISION 4 / Gruppe 4 ...ready!
-- SUBDIVISION 3 / Gruppe 3 .. ready!
-- SUBDIVISION 2 / Gruppe 2 ... ready!
-- SUBDIVISION 1 / Gruppe 1 ... ready!

>>RESULTS:
>> Detailed Results, Teams.. long downloads, sorry!
>> Detailed Results, Ind. AA.. long downloads, sorry!
... >> please, try also the special QUICK HIT >>
Results, Teams, topical Standings

>> AA Qualifiers
>> Qualifiers for Apparatuses

Ashley Postell -
World Champion 2002

FURTHER NEWS and INFORMATION:
16-Aug: --- Ashley Postell (USA), Verona van de Leur (NED), and Renske Endel (NED) have been pulled from their country's lineups at the 2003 World Gymnastics Championships, which is set to begin today.
U.S. team officials said Postell has been suffering from the flu and will be replaced by recent Pan American Games champion Chellsie Memmel. Memmel took part in Thursday night's podium training, from which Postell was absent.
>> Another bad news from Anaheim: Also the former Cuban gymnast Annia Portuondo Hatch has been removed from the U.S. lineup after a training accident left her with a dislocated knee and torn medial and lateral meniscus. So Hatch will be replaced by alternate Terin Humphrey.

Produnowa als Coach

... some other news...
>> The former world star Elena Produnoaa, worked as a coach assistent in the Russian team specially with Ludmilla Eshova....;