- September 20, 2001 -

Khorkina A Hit In South Africa
Russian star Svetlana Khorkina ended her vacation in South Africa today by announcing that she hopes to open a gymnastics school in the country. "This place is the best!" she said of the region.

Khorkina was in South Africa vacationing with her boyfriend, on her second trip to the region in the past year.

"South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe, this place is the best! The game, scenic beauty and the Victoria Falls are just awesome," Khorkina told a group that included young South African gymnasts and Jerry Masia, president of the South African Gymnastics Federation. She surprised the group by announcing, "I have decided only yesterday to open a big gymnastics school here, and I hope that you'll support me."

According to Masia, Khorkina made a positive impression on her South African hosts.

"Svetlana has bowled us all over," said Masia. "She didn't want only to pose for a group picture, but wanted to pose with everyone individually at the meeting. She told us that everyone overseas seems to be scared of her, and that we shouldn't be."

Khorkina, winner of three medals at her most recent competition, the Goodwill Games in Australia, confessed that she had not trained that hard for the competition.

"After last year's Olympics, I had taken a lot of time off," she said. "Though I didn't train a lot for the Goodwill Games in Brisbane, I still came second all-around, won bars and finished second on floor."

As for her future plans, Khorkina remained mysterious. "I don't know. Khorkina is Khorkina," she said in English. "Maybe I'll be finished after this year's World Championships, maybe not."

Khorkina promised to visit the country again in February 2002.

(Source: International Gymnast)

Argh... Svetlana gets to be in South Africa, having the time of her life, while I, poor me, have to be stuck here studying. Why, oh why, did the most important year of my education so far have to be now? Don't those people know that the dates of my exams clash with the World Championships? Typical of school...*sigh* Anyway, as for now... Woohoo... My first lot of exams have finished today and I promised myself a breather before slogging for the major one in November. Anyway, I hope to do as much as I can on this site before I finally have to force myself to stop coming online. I'll try to put up important stuff on time but other than that, the site will be pretty much temporarily suspended. Don't expect too much but I promise to devote my time to this site after 22 November which will be the last day of my exams. This is just some information on what you can expect from this site in the next few months, and I do apologise for it, but for now, it's back to gymnastics. Hee hee... I purposely left this note in the middle of everything so you guys had to read it.

Now's some stuff on Ekaterina Lobaznyuk's injury. Well, she's recovering rapidly but she will definitely not be competing in Ghent. She's eager to resume training soon so I expect that we'll see her again in the near future. Wishing you a speedy recovery and looking forward to your return, Katya.

Since Natalia Ziganshina's one of my favourite gymnasts, I decided to add something on her sister Gulnara, though I don't usually report on junior competitions. Gulnara won the all-around title at the International Junior competition, held in Yokohama, Japan, this weekend. She placed first over Ukrainian Alina Kozich. In third was Romania's Oana-Mihaela Ban.

Oh, and from a few days ago, Romania beat the Netherlands at a dual meet held in Eindhoven. Romania scored a team total of 144.572, outscoring the Dutch on all events except the vault, while the Netherlands team achieved a total of 140.545. Andreea Raducan continued her comeback from her letdown in Sydney, getting first in the all-around (37.024), of which three of the Romanians were in the top four. Verona van de Leur did well for a second (36.962), and was followed respectively by Carmen Ionescu (35.612) and Silvia Stroescu (35.112).

- September 2, 2001 -

Sabina Cojocar, the Romanian up and comer scored first with a 36.854 (V: 9.368, AB: 8.962, BB: 9.462, FX: 9.062). She like her counterpart, Dragulescu, who also won in the men's all-around, was consistent throughout the whole evening and achieved their first placing after mistakes by their closest rivals in the final rotation.

Svetlana Khorkina got a good second place after falling to fourth after a bad fall on beam on one of her new skills, which she had not performed for a few years. She finished with a silver after a marvelous performance on the vault, sticking both her dismounts and capping the night off with a total of 36.617 (V: 9.568, AB: 9.737, BB: 8.350, FX: 8.960). Considering that she fell on her knees on the vault during the event finals, this performance was exceptional and she even scored the highest of all the gymnasts on the vault. Of course her highest score came on the uneven bars, of which she also got the highest score of all the gymnasts, where she performed flawlessly and would have had a much higher score had she stuck her landing. She started off beam well, with a difficult and well executed mount but from there, she wobbled on some of her skills and the fall on one of the moves just sealed her bad time on the beam. Although she did badly here, she managed to show a wide smile, acknowledging the audience. Actually, she smiled at the end of all the routines, though she showed intense concentration at all other moments. For the floor exercise, she stepped out once and performed a otherwise pretty good routine. All in all, I think she would have gotten first if not for that fall on beam. With that in consideration, she was lucky to be able to get silver.

Elena Zamolodchikova had a pretty good performance too except for a fall on where else but the beam. She tried to hang on but lost couldn't muscle her body up and had to put her legs down for a 0.5 deduction. Her vaults were great as usual with just a hop and a step out on her landing. She did her same floor routine and stuck all the landings except for one step out. Many gymnasts have had trouble keeping within the floor area. Her bars routine was a little sloppy and she nearly fell off but muscled her way and did not fall. She is really strong! In the end, she completed the evening with third place and a 36.312 (V: 9.500, AB: 9.075, BB: 8.512 FX: 9.225).

American Carly Patterson needed 9.13 to tie for first when she went into her final rotation, the floor. She totally flopped there with only a 7.125, dropping to seventh spot. She fell on all three of her tumbles and when asked, she said that her badly done routine was not due to her nervousness. Well, she's only thirteen can has a great future ahead. She received the best score on beam with a captivating routine and even more captivating dismount which she drilled. She ended with a total of 34.849 (V: 9.225 AB: 8.937, BB: 9.562 FX: 7.125).

In the end, I got the two gymnasts I wanted in the top two spots but I'd rather have their positions reversed. =) Anyway, this is the end of the gymnastics competition for the Goodwill Games 2001. The next time I update will probably be in November, during the World Championships. I have a month long of exams in September and another month long in November but I'll try my best to give you all the latest in gymnastics. Ciao for a while and before I go, let me just do a summary of all the women's events at the GWG 2001.

All-Around
1st Sabina Cojocar (36.854)
2nd Svetlana Khorkina (36.617)
3rd Elena Zamolodchikova (36.312)

Vault
1st Elena Zamolochikova (9.393)
2nd Oksana Chusovitina (9.125)
3rd Alyona Kvasha (8.987)

Bars
1st Svetlana Khorkina (9.712)
2nd Natalia Ziganshina (9.425)
3rd Hollie Vise (9.212)

Beam
1st Sun Xiaojiao (9.662)
2nd Anna Pavlova (9.062)
3rd Hollie Vise (8.887)

Floor
1st Elena Zamolodchikova (8.950)
2nd Svetlana Khorkina (8.587)
3rd Sabina Cojocar (8.462)

Just a note. I guess that the highest score in any event would be Sveta's 9.737 on bars. Oops, I just couldn't resist adding that before I take my leave.

- August 30, 2001 -

Just the result I wanted. Sveta and Natalia got first and second on bars respectively. Khorkina got a 9.712, which I think is one of the highest she scored this year. Ziganshina got a good 9.425, considering that she had just broke into the senior team, and another young star, Hollie Vise got third. Sveta looked pretty cute with her new hairstyle and she also said in an interview after the win that this was a good build-up to the World Championships which is in about a month or so. G'luck to her for the all-around. In the beam final tomorrow are all my favourite young stars, Anna Pavlova, Sabina Cojocar and obviously, Ziganshina. I wouldn't know who to cheer for. But I'd be happy to see them in the top three, whatever precidence.

- August 29, 2001 -

Latest From The Goodwill Games
Khorkina got second on floor (8.587) and fourth on vault (8.968). Zamolodchikova got first on both. My fave Romanian Cojocar scored 8.462 for third on floor and Chusovitina and Kvasha got second and third on vault respectively. More news will be here soon. And a note, tomorrow will be the uneven bars finals. Let's hope Khorkina and Ziganshina, my two favourite Russians, score a top two finish. =)

- August 7, 2001 -