MELBOURNE, 23 November 2005 — Olympic champions Igor Cassina of Italy and Greece’s Dimosthenis Tampakos failed to qualify for the finals of their respective disciplines at the world championships yesterday.
Cassina finished 10th in the high bar and was joined on the sidelines by Tampakos, who scored 9.525 to finish ninth in the rings qualifying. Should any of the higher-ranked competitors pull out, he can contest the final.
Cassina’s routine had been the subject of some dispute after judges had incorrectly evaluated the start value on his spectacular crowd-pleasing performance.
He produced two of his specialist “Cassina” releases and catches in succession but was initially marked down by judges due to technical problems with his grip. The 28-year-old posted a 9.287 score on a routine that judges had given a 9.400 start value and was ranked 15th, well outside the top-eight needed to make the apparatus finals at the weekend.
However after discussions the judges re-evaluated the start value to 9.700 giving him a 9.587 score, and he had been inside the qualifications spots until the final rotation when he was relegated to 10th.
All around favorite Hiroyuki Tomita produced the best high bar performance with 9.737, while the small local crowd had plenty to cheer about with Australian Damian Istria producing a career best score to qualify for the final.
The 23-year-old punched the air in delight when he landed to score 9.612, just .075 points behind China’s Qin Xiao in the second sub-division for eventual seventh overall.
Xiao, who also qualified for the high bar, blitzed the field in the pommel horse scoring 9.800 on a 10.00 routine.
Yuri Van Gelder of the Netherlands qualified first in the rings with 9.662.
On the floor, two-time world champion and Athens Olympics silver medalist Marian Dragulescu of Romania posted the highest qualifying score of 9.637.
World No. 2 Leszek Blanik of Poland was top qualifier in the vault after he scored 9.712 and 9.687 on his two attempts to produce an average score of 9.699. Greece’s Vasileios Tsolakidis and Slovenia’s Mitja Pekovesk tied for first with a score of 9.737 on the parallel bars, just ahead of Olympic champion Valeri Goncharov (9.700) of Ukraine.
