24. September 2003  
Budapest / HUN  
Rhythmic Gymnastics

26. RG-WCh: Bessonova and Kabaeva - the first World Champions

Great Start for Anna Bessonova

Anna Bessonova (UKR) is the first winner at the 26th World Championships in Rhythmic Gymnastics (groups and individual gymnasts) in Budapest. She clearly won the final with the hoop in front of the 2 Russians Alina Kabaeva and Irina Tchachina. The final with ball has been won by Alina Kabaeva in front of Bessonova and Inna Shukova (BLR).
Today, the FIG informed about doping case of Bulgarian World Champion Simona Peycheva in August 2003.
The Russian team leads after the first part of team competition berofe Ukraine and Belarus.

Results after the first day – please see 'results”

Opening ceremony in the Sports Arena


Irina Tchachina (RUS)

Team competition, part 1
After the first half of the team competition at the World Championships in Budapest the favorite team from Russia with Alina Kabaeva, Irina Tchachina and Olga Kapranova has taken the lead. Rank 2 is currently hold by Ukraine and Belarus is on rank 3. In the individual ranking Anna Bessonova (UKR) could defend her lead in front of Kabaeva and Tchachina.
Of the favorite teams for this event Ukraine was the first one which had to start. Whereas it has been obvious that Natalia Godunko started nervously in her 2 routines, Tamara Yerofeeva and Anna Bessonova have shined with truly brilliant routines - the first highlights of these WCh’s! Accordingly, the trio took the lead at that moment in front of Belarus and Greece. Anna Bessonova led the individual ranking which serves also as qualification for the two apparatus finals in the evening.
In the afternoon the Russian team competed with a very good team performance (a great routine from Tchachina with the hoop!) – but in the individual ranking nobody could overtake Anna Bessonova. This is indeed a small surprise as neither Kabaeva nor Tchachina made any mistakes in their routines.

One of 115 gymnasts today - Wania Monteiro from CPV

Without doubts also surprising is the current rank of the Greek team – which can be found on the 4th place in front of Bulgaria, without the injured and doping- suspected Simona Peycheva. The Spanish team with Rodriquez, Colino and the unmatchable Almudena Cid Tostado also presented themselves very convincing and securely. They will certainly fight for rank 5 together with the Chinese team which managed to reach the 7th place today, as the teams ranked 1 to 5 will receive two individual spots for the Olympic Games. As all routines count for the result of this team competition there certainly might be changes in the order tomorrow.
The young German team started not too bad, Eugenia Ramich had a few drops of the apparatus, the two others (Raissa Feldmann, who did a good job as first starter, and Lisa Ingildeeva) presented their routines without mistakes. Important for the all-around and the Olympic qualification: Lisa Ingildeeva presented 2 very well and faultless routines. It is not really understandable why she only received a score of around 21 for her ball routine…

View into the separated arena

Separated and parallel
This World Championships present some new competition formats. Today for the first time it has been dared to present the competition parallel on two carpets in the same competition arena. The two carpets are only separated by a curtain and so you also have the music running parallel and a permanent walking around from the audience (only very few up to now) and the photographers (quite a lot).
A disputatious compromise considering an entry field of more than 100 participants with four routines each – without this timely parallelism it would have been two full competition days more… For the gymnasts it is nonetheless quite hard and probably the most experienced will be the ones to cope with it the best way.
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