ANAHEIM, California, 20 August 2003 — They are well on their way to becoming the China dolls of the 2003 World Gymnastics Championships. China’s women’s gymnastics team laid the foundation for a medal haul for years to come as their inexperienced but gifted athletes captured first place on Monday in the qualifying round at the World Championships.
Led by promising youngsters, Fan Ye and Zhang Nan, the pint-size performers put together a string of impressive routines on balance beam, vault, uneven bars and floor exercise to score a total of 148.671 points. China finished 0.551 points ahead of runner- up Romania and third-place United States (147.697). “We don’t have any pressure on us,” said China assistant coach Liu Qunlin. “This is a brand new team and a new generation of Chinese gymnasts.”
Not only did China crush their opponents, but they also qualified in top spot for the 2004 Athens Olympics. Injury and early retirement took some of the more senior members out of the national squad.
China, with its new faces, won the Asian Games in October in convincing fashion, finishing almost nine points ahead of second place North Korea.
“They prepared well after the Asian Games,” said Liu. “We are satisfied because they did exactly what we worked on in training.” The talented urchins also captured the hearts of the fans at the Arrowhead Pond arena. A large crowd followed them from one apparatus to another around the onethird full 16,000-seat arena, like a Tiger Woods’ gallery at the Masters golf tournament. Liu said their biggest opposition in team finals is going to come from the United States, Russia and Romania.
“There are also a lot of teams like Spain, Ukraine and Brazil that have improved,” she added. Zhang, Fan and Kang Xin — who all look much younger than the tender years they are listed in the media handouts — were competing in their first World Championships.
The 17-year-old Kang was first up on beam scoring a 9.400 and setting the tone for the others. Fan, 16, finished with the highest beam score of 9.712. Zhang, who is from Beijing, had the top floor exercise score with a 9.287. Russian diva Svetlana Khorkina also made her presence known on Monday in what she has said will be her final Worlds.
The 24-year-old Khorkina took no chances on her signature event, the uneven bars, scoring a 9.450 with a short, simple routine that she easily nailed.
The reclusive star then slipped out the back door to avoid answering questions about her performance. The Russian women’s gymnastic’s team racked up 145.572 points to place fifth overall while Spain (145,409) was sixth. Khorkina is the defending world and European all-around champion and also holds the distinction of being the only woman to have a skill named after her on every event. She has won 21 medals in worlds since 1994, including five-straight gold on uneven bars. Khorkina is backed up at the Anaheim worlds by European junior champ Anna Pavlova and Olympic and world vault champion Elena Zamolodchikova. A recent injury to 2001 world all-around silver medalist Natalia Ziganshina opened the door for Zamolodchikova to join the team.
Romania took a huge step toward putting past disappointments in the United States behind them on Monday by finishing second behind China in the qualifying round. Romania, the Sydney Olympic and 2001 Worlds gold medalists, also has some new faces on their team.
Romania has not done as well as they would have hoped in major competitions in the United States in the past. They finished third behind the US in the 1991 Worlds in Indianapolis and swallowed another third at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Romania has won the last five world team titles and are led by national champion Andreea Munteanu, who had superb routines in the floor (9.412) and vault (9.387) on Monday.
Brazil (eighth) and Great Britain (ninth) also qualified for the Olympics with surprisingly strong performances on Monday. North Korea also made a stunning move to finish in 12th and grab final full-team Olympic qualifying spot. The top eight teams advance to today’s team finals.
