- December 23, 2001 -

Khorkina Picks Up Awards
Svetlana Khorkina's golden performance at this year's world championships continues to bring the Russian star awards. This past week, Khorkina was named "Athlete of the Year" by the European Union of Sports Journalists. Khorkina won the award in the women's category, followed by Croatian Alpine skier Janica Kostelic and Ukrainian track and field athlete Zhanna Pintusevich. German Formula-1 superstar Michael Schumacher won in the men's category.

In poll of global news agencies by Russia's ITAR-TASS, Khorkina and Shumacher also came out on top as the best sportsmen of 2001. Taking part in the survey were over 35 agencies from around the world, including Reuters, the Australian Associated Press, China's Xinhua, Germany's DPA, and Japan's Kyodo.

ITAR-TASS also named Khorkina as Russian Athlete of the Year. Khorkina garnered 134 votes, beating out track athlete Olga Yegorova (96 votes) and tennis star Marat Safin (88 votes). Sixth was figure skater Yevgeny Pluschenko, followed by rhythmic world champion Alina Kabayeva with 38 votes.

On Friday, Khorkina was named "Person of the Year" in the sports category by the Russian Biograph Institute, which each December nominates a Russian citizen in various categories.

At the 2001 World Championships in Ghent, Belgium, Khorkina won five medals; the 22-year-old earned golds in the all-around, vault, and uneven bars, silver in the team competition, and bronze in the floor exercise.

(Source: International Gymnast)

- December 21, 2001 -

Firstly, I would like to apologize for my long absence. I'm really trying to find time for the site but I just seem so busy these days. I promise to try harder and lets see how things go along. Thanks for all your support so far.

European Sportswoman Of The Year
A few days ago, German Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher and Russian artistic gymnast Svetlana Khorkina have been voted European Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year. The two athletes came out top after an annual poll conducted by the European Sports Writers Union.

Glasgow World Cup 2001
Most noticeably missing in action at Kelvin Hall was Russian star Svetlana Khorkina. Khorkina is rumored to be in the Glasgow area to dedicate a gymnastics club's grand opening, but withdrew from the competition here. Since Svetlana did not take part, there'll only be scores, no reports. These are the final results, not the qualification, just in case you do not know.

- Women -
Vault
1. Oksana Chusovitina UZB 9.437
2. Verona van de Leur NED 9.200
3. Jana Komrskova CZE 9.162
4. Courtney Kupets USA 9.037
4. Gabriella Wammes NED 9.037
6. Ashley Postell USA 9.012
7. Katja Abel GER 8.975
8. Emma Williams GBR 8.800

Uneven Bars
1. Oksana Chusovitina UZB 9.100
2. Yevgenia Kuznetsova BUL 8.925
2. Verona van de Leur NED 8.925
4. Courtney Kupets USA 8.800
5. Katerina Maresova CZE 8.675
6. Jana Komrskova CZE 8.300
7. Birgit Schweigert GER 8.250
8. Nicola Willis GBR 8.200

Balance Beam
1. Ashley Postell USA 8.825
2. Verona van de Leur NED 8.775
3. Oksana Chusovitina UZB 8.650
4. Katja Abel GER 8.575
6. Courtney Kupets USA 8.500
6. Gabriella Wammes NED 8.425
6. Jana Komrskova CZE 8.425
8. Yevgenia Kuznetsova BUL 7.900

Floor Exercise
1. Verona van de Leur NED 9.125
2. Ashley Postell USA 9.075
3. Yevgenia Kuznetsova BUL 8.925
4. Oksana Chusovitina UZB 8.900
5. Nicola Willis GBR 8.600
6. Katja Abel GER 8.550
7. Courtney Kupets USA 8.500
8. Karolina Bohman SWE 8.300

- Men -
Floor Exercise
1. Igors Vihrovs LAT 9.750
2. Yevgeny Sapronenko LAT 9.725
2. Jordan Jovtchev BUL 9.725
4. Kyle Shewfelt CAN 9.675
5. Dmitry Karbanenko FRA 9.575
6. Todd Thornton USA 9.225
7. Alexander Jeltkov CAN 9.075
8. Alexander Beresch UKR 8.950

Pommel Horse
1. Marius Urzica ROM 10.00
2. Dmitry Karbanenko FRA 9.575
3. Alexander Beresch UKR 9.525
4. Thomas Zimmermann AUT 9.400
5. Sven Kwiatkowski GER 9.175
6. Runar Alexandersson ISL 9.050
7. Ioan Suciu ROM 8.975
8. Levente Fekete HUN 8.600

Congratulations to Marius Urzica for the first perfect ten I've seen in quite some time. Maybe Svetlana would get one too someday. Well, it doesn't hurt to hope...

Still Rings
1. Jordan Jovtchev BUL 9.850
2. Olli Torkkel FIN 9.474
3. Stephan Zapf GER 9.325
4. Sean Townsend USA 9.300
5. Scott Mirceta GBR 9.250
6. Levente Fekete HUN 9.225
7. Mark Freeman GBR 8.800
8. Kevin Bachmann SUI 8.625

Vault
1. Dmitry Karbanenko FRA 9.475
1. Yevgeny Sapronenko LAT 9.475
3. Ioan Suciu ROM 9.412
4. Kyle Shewfelt CAN 9.337
5. Todd Thornton USA 9.312
6. Michael Hjorth SWE 9.225
7. Robert Gal HUN 9.212
8. Dmitry Kasperovich BLR 9.175

Parallel Bars
1. Andreu Vivo ESP 9.750
2. Sean Townsend USA 9.575
3. Jordan Jovtchev BUL 9.275
4. Dmitry Karbanenko FRA 9.200
5. Aljaz Pegan SLO 9.100
6. Marius Urzica ROM 8.950
7. Blaz Puljic SLO 8.850
8. David Spilka CZE 8.100

High Bar
1. Jari Monkkonen FIN 9.775
2. Andreu Vivo ESP 9.650
3. Alexander Jeltkov CAN 9.625
4. Marius Urzica ROM 9.550
5. Sven Kwiatkowski GER 9.400
6. Aljaz Pegan SLO 9.200
7. Alexander Beresch UKR 9.100
8. Philippe Rizzo AUS 8.500

Chunichi Cup 2001 Results
Women's All-Around
1. Tatiana Yarosh UKR 36.837
2. Lyudmila Yezhova RUS 36.550
3. Sabina Cojocar ROM 36.425
4. Andreea Raducan ROM 36.237
5. Ayaka Sahara JPN 36.225
6. Natalia Ziganshina RUS 36.187
7. Miho Takenaka JPN 35.075
8. Aya Manabe JPN 34.725
9. Natalia Sirobaba UKR 33.687

Men's All-Around
1. Naoya Tsukahara JPN 56.675
2. Lu Yufu CHN 56.275
3. Yoshihiro Saito JPN 55.800
4. Hiroyuki Tomita JPN 53.850
5. Georgy Grebenkov RUS 53.700
6. Yang Tae-Young KOR 53.675
7. Brett McClure USA 53.225
8. Shin Hyung-Ook KOR 52.675
9. Yuri Tikhonovsky RUS 52.350

- Women's Event Finals -
Vault
1. Andreea Raducan ROM 9.275
2. Natalia Sirobaba UKR 9.112
3. Natalia Ziganshina RUS 9.075
4. Miho Takenaka JPN 8.825
5. Tatiana Yarosh UKR 8.712

Uneven Bars
1. Lyudmila Yezhova RUS 9.625
2. Natalia Sirobaba UKR 9.225
3. Tatiana Yarosh UKR 9.125
4. Ayaka Sahara JPN 8.950
5. Miho Takenaka JPN 8.825

Balance Beam
1. Lyudmila Yezhova RUS 9.750
2. Andreea Raducan ROM 9.675
3. Sabina Cojocar ROM 9.600
4. Tatiana Yarosh UKR 9.175
5. Ayaka Sahara JPN 9.000
6. Natalia Sirobaba UKR 8.125

Floor Exercise
1. Tatiana Yarosh UKR 9.425
2. Aya Manabe JPN 9.000
3. Ayaka Sahara JPN 8.925
4. Sabina Cojocar ROM 8.650
5. Natalia Sirobaba UKR 7.450

- Men's Event Finals -
Floor Exercise
1. Yuri Tikhonovsky RUS 9.525
2. Yoshihiro Saito JPN 9.200
3. Shin Hyung-Ook KOR 8.775
4. Naoya Tsukahara JPN 8.700
4. Lu Yufu CHN 8.700
5. Yang Tae-Young KOR 8.400
6. Georgy Grebenkov RUS 8.275

Pommel Horse
1. Lu Yufu CHN 9.675
2. Shin Hyung-Ook KOR 9.650
3. Naoya Tsukahara JPN 9.650
4. Brett McClure USA 9.425
5. Yang Tae-Young KOR 9.350
6. Georgy Grebenkov RUS 9.300
7. Yuri Tikhonovsky RUS 8.800
8. Yoshihiro Saito JPN 8.550

Still Rings
1. Hiroyuki Tomita JPN 9.700
2. Lu Yufu CHN 9.575
3. Naoya Tsukahara JPN 9.550
4. Yang Tae-Young KOR 9.475
Vault
1. Yang Tae-Young KOR 9.387
2. Naoya Tsukahara JPN 9.300
3. Georgy Grebenkov RUS 9.100
4. Yuri Tikhonovsky RUS 9.037
5. Yoshihiro Saito JPN 8.437

Parallel Bars
1. Hiroyuki Tomita JPN 9.750
2. Naoya Tsukahara JPN 9.700
3. Lu Yufu CHN 9.625
4. Yang Tae-Young KOR 9.175
5. Shin Hyung-Ook KOR 8.675
6. Yuri Tikhonovsky RUS 8.500

High Bar
1. Yoshihiro Saito JPN 9.725
2. Georgy Grebenkov RUS 9.175
3. Yang Tae-Young KOR 9.150
4. Shin Hyung-Ook KOR 8.750
5. Hiroyuki Tomita JPN 8.500

Reese's Cup 2001
1. Tasha Schwikert and Jordan Jovtchev
2. Svetlana Khorkina and John Roethlisberger
3. Jamie Dantzscher and Steve McCain

Notes:
- Gymnasts that managed to get perfect tens were Shannon Miller for her beam routine, John Macready, Svetlana Khorkina as well as Tasha Schwikert.

- In Tasha Schwikert's uneven bars routine, she did a high flying hindorff but fell flat but to the crowd's surprise, it was an intentional fall because they played Aaliyah's "Try Again" and she hit the hidorff beautifully.

- Svetlana Khorkina's routines were awesome. She was tumbling in this really short red dress.

- Alexei Nemov was pretty good too. He did a good high bar routine dressed as a cowboy. Come to think of it, there were several "country" related performances which appealed to the Texas crowd very much.