- October 28/29, 2001 -

World Championships 2001:
Men's Qualifying
I decided against writing reports for the men's competition as I feel that most people come to my site to read about the women's competition. I will still put up scores on the men's side but there will only be full coverage and reports on women's events.

Final Results
Team Standings
1. Belerus 222.132
2. USA 221.420
3. Korea 220.857
4. Romania 219.768
5. Ukraine 218.757
6. France 218.593
7. China 218.296
8. Russia 217.384

Individual Standings
1. Ivan Ivankov BLR 56.486
2. Eric Lopez CUB 55.874
3. Sean Townsend USA 55.574
4. Paul Hamm USA 55.561
5. Yang Tae-Young KOR 55.561
6. Jordan Jovtchev BUL 55.299
7. Kim Song-Hwa KOR 55.285
8. Alexei Bondarenko RUS 55.074
9. Feng Jing CHN 55.061
10. Steve McCain USA 54.949
11. Marian Dragulescu ROM 54.573
12. Pavel Gofman ISR 54.235
13. Yevgeny Sapronenko LAT 53.999
14. Dan Potra ROM 53.998
15. Abel Drigg CUB 53.950
16. Yernar Yerimbetov KAZ 53.936
17. Victor Cano ESP 53.911
18. Florent Marée FRA 53.862
19. Johan Mounard FRA 53.861
20. Charles Leon Tamayo CUB 53.836
21. Raj Bhavsar USA 53.836
22. Alexander Kruzhylau BLR 53.835
23. Andrei Mykaylichenko UKR 53.761
24. Roman Zozulia UKR 53.611
25. Igor Cassina ITA 53.548
26. Liu Jinyu CHN 53.449
27. Grant Golding CAN 53.448
28. Ioan Silviu Suciu ROM 53.274
29. Roman Schweizer SUI 53.173
30. Dominique Daeppen SUI 53.161
31. Sven Kwiatkowski GER 53.161
32. Matteo Morandi UKR 53.148

My Thoughts...Day 2...
Phew...Russia qualifies for the team final, amid in last spot. At least it will have a second chance in the team final and I do hope they will take this chance they have, do the best that they can and show the standard that they are capable of performing. Also hope that the Russian team will recover from their injuries by then, at least for some of them... There's only one Russian in the all-around... Hopefully he will do Russia proud...=)

My Thoughts...Day 1...
Gosh...Belerus, USA, Korea, Ukraine are all ahead of the Russians with the big-shots like the Romanians and Chinese yet to compete. Hopefully if the Russians can overcome their injuries, they should be able to do better in the team final and pose a bigger threat to the rest of the teams. Having a team like the Koreans outscoring them both team and individual will hopefully make the Russians unite for a better performance during the team final, which they might now find it difficult to qualify, lying in fifth spot with two more rotations to go. I'm not saying the Koreans are bad but...Russia has always proved itself to be a cut above the rest with the exception of the Chinese and the Romanians.

Opening Ceremony
The opening ceremony saw a display by the "Aeros Company" which consists of the entire Romanian sports aerobics team. The company went on a very successful tour of the USA last year and inlcudes aerobics stars Cristina Moldovan and Izabela Lacatus. Between them the members of the group have won a total of 26 medals and titles over the past six years. The combination of dance and various gymnastics disciplines provided the gym fans present with a fantasic show.

- October 27, 2001 -

World Championships 2001:
More On Women's Podium Training
A few notes on various teams:

The Dutch girls were strong on bars and vault, but very inconsistent on beam and floor. Without doubt, the team is expecting a strong AA result from Verona van de Leur. After all, these World Championships are practically taking place in their back yard, in an area that speaks their language.

The Ukrainian women have to be considered medal contenders. However they "gave up" on stuck landings on floor, stepping out of bounds quite often - no doubt, this will be different during the actual competition. They will also have to improve on beam and vault... Olga Roshchupkina was their most stable performer.

The USA was impressive on the Pegases, the new vaulting table, with high post flight phases. On bars they showed clean pirouettes and well rotated Tkachevs. They shouldn't be counted out of the medal race... Tasha Schwikert seems to be the strongest gymnast for the AA competition and is extremely confident in all her routines.

Germany's gymnasts were happy with what they showed. Apart from a few errors on landings, vault went well. While one of the national AA champions, Birgit Schweigert, showed a solid routine on bars, her partner in the championship, Katja Abel, has been fighting to find her form on bars all week. "..but basically everything is normal," says contented head coach Petra Theiss. Her opinion is shared by Cologne coach Zhanna Polyakova and Walter Bernasch from Leipzig, who were both watching over the German team on the podium.

Russia is definitely a medal favourite, in running for the gold. Romanian coach Octavian Belu, Russia's prime rival, watched Arkayev's team closely from the stands. His team trained in the evening. It is worth noting how often double Olympic champion Elena Zamolodchikova had to attend to the heavily bandaged joint of her left foot... The Russians have already been plagued by injuries in their men's team.

As expected, the Romanians were very strong in their tumbling on floor, they also showed very difficult dance elements, but the artistic "package" is still not a strong point for the Olympic team champions. The number of difficult tuck summersaults on beam was impressive as well as their dismount out of combination of three acrobatic elements.

The Aussie team's Russian coach Nikolai Lapshin, "I am just satisfied with my girls. Though the younger girls had some breaks, there has definitely been an improvement over the last few weeks. Of course, none of them will be able to surpass Allana Slater and her experience!" Floor was a particularly strong apparatus for the Australian women. There were double-doubles, double layouts, triple twists and on bars there were even two Comanecis in one routine on display. "We expect to reach team finals, and why not win a medal", Lapshin said optimistically.

A few notes on some gymnasts:

Brenda Magana (MEX): Showed a full-twisting Gienger, called a "Def" after a French gymnast in the men's COP, and then a triple fly away dismount!

Oksana Chusovitina (UZB): Full-twisting double layout; her spectacular punch front 1 1/2 twist is still highly debated on the women's scene!

Rumour has it that Olympic champion Elena Zamolodchikova (RUS) has submitted a new vault which she didn't throw in podium training!

Svetlana Khorkina (RUS) showed a gainer 2 1/2 twist off the end of the beam and earned friendly applause for her floor routine.

- October 26, 2001 -

World Championships 2001:
Women's Podium Training
With a superb performance during podium training Friday evening in Ghent, defending champion Romania served notice that they should be the favorites to again win the women's team title.

The Romanian women's team nailed routine after routine in podium training, and looked confident and fit. As a team they had the most consistent performances with very difficult routines. Three Romanians (Andreea Raducan, Silvia Stroescu, Andreea Ulmeanu) tumbled double layouts on floor exercise, and three (Raducan, Sabina Cojocar, Carmen Ionescu) consistently stuck their full-twisting somersaults on balance beam.

Raducan looked fitter than she has in recent months, though the left knee she injured this past summer remains taped. She worked most aggressively on balance beam, sticking her acrobatics and double pike dismount.

Also appearing in good shape Friday on the podium was the Spanish women's team, with excellent routines from Sara Moro and Elena Gomez.

Competing in Ghent without a team - but still in contention for individual medals - were Oksana Chusovitina (UZB) and Sun Xiaojiao (CHN). In podium training Chusovitina looked as fit as she has all year, and threw a high level of difficulty. On floor she tumbled a full-twisting double layout, and she vaulted both a tucked Rudi and a layout front-full vaults. Her dismount from uneven bars was giant-full, hop full, full-twisting double layout. Sun appeared sluggish on most of the events but was spectacular as expected on balance beam.

The Australian women trained in the final session, and looked much improved as a team on vault, and showed some well-choreographed floor exercise routines.

The Russian women (including 1997 World Champion Svetlana Khorkina) also performed confidently in podium training this afternoon at the World Gymnastics Championships in Ghent, Belgium, but without recently injured team member Ekaterina Privalova, who was unable to train. With her ankle heavily wrapped, a limping Privalova provided assistance to her teammates by moving mats and chalking up the bars.

The rest of the Russian team looked in top shape with the exception of Elena Zamolodchikova, who tumbled only layouts during her floor exercise to save her own injured leg. [According to a competition doctor, Zamolodchikova has a fractured foot.] Zamolodchikova worked aggressively on balance beam in her trademark style, adding a new full-twisting back handspring, back handspring, layout stepout, and back tuck to Rulfova. The team trained under the watchful eyes of head coach Leonid Arkayev and Marina Bulashenko, with personal coaches Boris Pilkin (Khorkina), Nadezhda Maslennikova (Zamolodchikova), and Viktor Gavrichenko (Ziganshina) offering guidance.

Svetlana Khorkina, 1997 world all-around champion, received the warmest applause from the sparse audience at the Flanders Sports Hall for her floor routine; using her Olympic routine from 2000, Khorkina tumbled a tucked full-in and whip-triple twist. The four-time world champion on uneven bars, Khorkina consistently performed her difficult routine on that event.

Russia's Natalia Ziganshina and Maria Zasypkina, both competing in their first world championships, also trained well, especially on beam where they both threw standing Arabian somersaults. Beam and bars specialist Lyudmila Ezhova performed flawlessly on beam with a difficult and elegant routine, but was inconsistent on bars, flying off the apparatus several times.

In the same session as Russia was the Mexican team, led by the explosive Brenda Magaña. On uneven bars, Magaña performed a full-twisting Gienger (Def) and also landed her triple back dismount. She also tumbled a double layout, Arabian double front, and piked-full in on floor exercise, and threw a Podkopayeva on vault.

A united American women's team kicked off their podium training with a team huddle, and performed solidly, making few errors. The US, loudly cheered by a large American delegation in the audience, was one of the few teams to formally perform complete routines. Though only one team member, Mohini Bhardwaj, has world championships experience, all the U.S. women looked confident and secure. Bhardwaj, a 1997 Worlds competitor, made a strong return, showing a new double layout, punch front on floor exercise.

Highlighting Friday morning's podium training was the performance of a reinvigorated Evgenia Kuznetsova, formerly of Russia but now competing for Bulgaria.

The Bulgarian team performed in the second training session this morning at the Flanders Sports Arena in Ghent. The four-member squad was led by Kuznetsova, a 1996 Russian Olympian and member of three Russian world teams (1995, 1997, and 1999), who is competing in her first major competition for Bulgaria since moving to the country this year. Kuznetsova, the 1998 European balance beam champion, performed beautifully on beam and on floor exercise, where she tumbled a piked full-in, 2 1/2 twist to punch layout-front-full, and triple twist.

Also performing well-choreographed floor routines in podium training were Canada's Kate Richardson and Crystal Gilmore, though both gymnasts struggled to land their tumbling.

In the first afternoon session, a seven-member Ukrainian team trained inconsistently but showed a high level of difficulty. 2000 Junior European medallist Irina Yarotskaya trained bars and beam only, skipping vault due to a heavily taped right ankle. Olga Roschupkina, 1999 World Championships balance beam bronze medallist, appeared in better shape than she had earlier this year and trained well on all events. On floor, Natalia Serobaba attempted a layout front punch double front pass.

(Source: International Gymnast)

Interesting Tidbit
Lots of teams are finding the floor mat hard to deal with. The J&F mat seems to be quite different from the "normal" ones (it's harder). So far, the only team to cope well this are the Dutch (probably because they train on it at home), who stood up a lot more on their tumbles than the other teams.

More On Men's Podium Training
Normally podium training is supposed to help teams stabilize their routines and get to know the apparatus. But for favourite Russia, disaster struck in the first group of podium training.

After reigning world champion Nikolai Kryukov arrived nursing back problems, one of Russia's key team members, Yevgeni Podgorni, took an unfortunate fall on a Gienger, landing on his right shoulder and elbow. Stunned from the pain, he couldn't get up at first and was immediately treated by the doctor that had come rushing onto the podium. A short while later, he re-emerged, his shoulder heavily strapped and his arm kept in place by a bandage and with ice on his injured elbow. A press conference with the Russian team and Nemov, which had originally been planned for after podium training, was cancelled. "We arrived here with seven gymnasts and now we're down to four…", a visibly shaken Leonid Arkayev said without giving any details about who the third casualty on the Russian team might be.

Things had been going well for the Russian up until then. Alexei Bondarenko, whose handspring – double front looked particularly explosive on the new vaulting table Pegases, was good on bars as well. Nemov was impressive on vault with a RO-1/2 turn on to handspring-front layout with 1 ½ twists off. The Russians were solid on bars and Nemov attempted a Tkachev in layout-piked position on high bar, but fell on his Gienger. And then Podgorni's crash, which might have already decided the medal race…

The Romanian team is definitely in the hunt for medals. This team has a dynamic all-arounder in Marian Dragulescu, not only due his qualities on floor and vault – and Marius Urzica's qualities on pommels and bars are well known.

- October 25, 2001 -

World Championships 2001
Men's Podium Training:
The gymnastics world is continuing to prepare for the World Championships which begin this Saturday in Ghent, Belgium, with the men's podium training taking place Thursday.

The gymnasts have been training all week at halls at the Flanders Expo, and today was the first of two days of podium training at the actual competition site, the Flanders Sports Arena.

Though Russia's Yevgeny Podgorny suffered an injury (extent unknown at this time) when he fell on high bar today, most of the teams trained successfully. A few highlights of the afternoon session included the strong American and Ukrainian teams, who both performed difficult routines consistently. The Ukrainian team, coached by 1989 World Champion Igor Korobchinsky, looked especially strong on floor exercise. Individual highlights came from previous world and Olympic medallists Ivan Ivankov (BLR), Jordan Jovtchev (BUL), Igors Vihrovs (LAT) and Jesus Carballo (ESP), who all looked prepared and worked aggressively. 1996 Olympic floor exercise champion Ioannis Melissanidis skipped floor but trained on vault, working Yurchenko and Tsukahara timers only instead of competition vaults.

The women's podium training begins Friday at 9:00 am. Romania, the defending team champions, have been one of the most consistent teams at the training gym this week. [They looked very strong and their tumbling on floor was great - strong tumbles and loads of whip-triple twists.] The American women, who hope to reply on consistency rather than high start values in their quest for a team medal, have also looked very strong in training. The Russian team has struggled in practice with Olympic gold medallist Elena Zamolodchikova apparently suffering from injury. Her knee swollen and wrapped, Zamolodchikova has trained diligently nonetheless. [She spent the greater part of the Russian team's work out icing her foot and didn't do much training.] Zamolodchikova's teammate Lyudmila Ezhova, a bars and beam specialist, has trained very consistently on those two events. Ekaterina Privalova (RUS) has submitted a new element to the WTC (Women's Technical Committee): a Stalder with legs together and it has reportedly received a "D" rating. Additionally, Mexico's Brenda Magaña has submitted a triple back dismount from uneven bars, which has received a rating of "Super E."

(Source: International Gymnast)

Just for those interested, Khorkina was spotted in training yesterday and looked to be in good form. There's also a Pre-Worlds interview with Khorkina and Arkayev up on the Quotes section. Well, that's it for now. I'd try to get more reports up as I receive the news from Ghent.

- October 20, 2001 -

World Championships 2001 (Russian Team)
The world team members were announced by Russian Gymnastics Federation president Leonid Arkayev on Wednesday. At a press conference held at Russia's Round Lake national training center, Arkayev said Russia's world team will consist of Alexei Bondarenko, Georgy Grebenkov, Yevgeny Krylov, Alexei Nemov, Yevgeny Podgorny, and Yuri Tikhonovsky. According to Arkayev, the gymnasts who will compete all events in the team preliminaries in Ghent will be Bondarenko, Podgorny, and Tikhonovsky, while 2000 Olympic all-around champion Nemov will compete only four. Nikolai Krukov who injured himself at the Goodwill Games was not among the announced team members but his name is still on the competitors list for the World Championships. Whether he will compete is still to be seen.

The women's team was announced as Svetlana Khorkina, Ekaterina Privalova, Lyudmila Ezhova, Elena Zamolodchikova, Maria Zasypkina, and Natalia Ziganshina. Khorkina, Zamolodchikova, and Ziganshina will compete all events in team preliminaries.

For me, that's a big hurray, though I would have liked it better if Katya was there too. My fave two gymnasts, Svetlana and Natalia, have a chance for the all-around. Even though my exams clash with the World Championships, which is nothing to be happy about, I'll still be rooting for them. In fact, I'll be cheering all the way for the Russian team. They rock!

Interesting Tidbit
The Russian Gymnastics Federation have opened a new training center at Rostov (Produnova's hometown) as Round Lake is very old and too many gymnasts stayed there. But the top gymnasts will be remaining at Round Lake even though some will move to Rostov. That's probably because there are too many discos in Rostov and Arkayev wants to have the top gymnasts as controlled as possible.