Catalina Ponor displayed her growing maturity when she majestically outclassed her opponents to win two gold medals in the Athens Olympics yesterday.
Gervasio Deferr showed he was still the man to beat on the vault but his success was overshadowed by an spinal injury sustained by Russia’s Alexei Bondarenko, who landed awkwardly after both of his vaults and had to be carried out of the arena on a stretcher.
The first competitor to go on the apparatus, Bondarenko landed on his stomach after his first vault and ended up sprawled on his back after his second attempt.
The silver medalist from Sydney had to be helped off the mat and was treated by the onsite medics at the Olympic Indoor Hall before being taken to hospital for further examination.
Six days after guiding Romania to the women’s team title, Ponor showed off her sublime balancing skills on the beam before tumbling to glory on the floor exercise less than an hour later to become the most successful gymnast in Athens.
Ponor, who celebrated her 17th birthday last Friday, was rewarded for her precision and artistry with a winning score of 9.787 to edge out American all-round champion Carly Patterson by a narrow margin of 0.012. Courtney Kupets’s gamble to compete with a hamstring injury failed to pay off as she trailed in fifth place.
Cheered on by a large contingent of Spanish fans, Deferr cast aside memories of the three months drugs ban he served in 2003 to retain his vault title.
“It’s different because of everything that’s happened but it’s an Olympic gold medal and they all taste good,” said Deferr
Deferr’s 2-1/2 twisted somersaults were enough to land him the gold with an average of 9.737
A broad smile broke out on Deferr’s face the moment his closest rival, Marian Dragulescu stumbled on landing after his second vault to finish third. “After my first vault, I thought the gold was mine. However I decided to make a change in the last minute, made a mistake and it cost me the medal,” said Romania’s Dragulescu. Latvia’s Evgeni Sapronenko was awarded the silver.
Twice world champion Li Xiaopeng, who had been undefeated on the apparatus at every major competition for the last two seasons, continued China’s poor showing in Athens.
He found himself sitting on the mat after his first attempt and trailed in seventh place. But he did finally get a medal around his neck, although it was a bronze in the parallel bars.
Valeri Goncharov dethroned Li to grab the bars title, the Ukrainian executing a dynamic swinging routine on the bars to win with a score of 9.787.
Meanwhile, Alexei Nemov brought the Olympic horizontal bar competition to a standstill yesterday after the crowds jeered and booed the judges for his score for nearly 10 minutes.
Nemov, a 12-times Olympic medalist, was only awarded a 9.725 for his routine. The charismatic Nemov had wowed the crowd with an amazing six release and catch maneuvers but when the score flashed up, the Russian was left trailing in third place with seven more competitors to go.
All-round champion Paul Hamm, who was the next competitor to go, was left standing by the bar as he waited for the crowd to calm down.
It was left to Nemov to try to restore order at the Olympic Indoor Hall. The Russian waved to fans and gestered for them to allow the competition to continue. His score was later amended to 9.762, which failed to take him higher in the standings.
Confident Cuban Skips Nearer Olympic Showdown
• Classy defending bantamweight (54kg) champion Guillermo Ortiz Rigondeaux of Cuba kept on course for a gold medal match with world champion Aghasi Mammadov of Azerbaijan in the Athens Olympic boxing tournament yesterday.
Rigondeaux, 24 next month, shrugged off 2003 world championship silver medallist Gennady Kovalev of Russia 20-5 in a battle of southpaws.
The upright Kovalev, 21-year-old 2002 European champion and 2004 silver medalist, was always going forward but rarely able to land a telling blow on his bobbing and weaving opponent. And the Russian took a standing count of eight in the third when the stylish Cuban caught him with a left cross.
After Mammadov, 24, outclassed gutsy 19-year-old Maksym Tretyak of Ukraine 32-12 he said he was not afraid of the Cuban.
Mammadov, who lost to Rigondeaux in the bantamweight final at the 2001 world championships and the quarter-finals of the 2000 Sydney Olympics when boxing for Turkey, shocked the Cuban in the 2003 world championships in Bangkok.
First he fights Worapoj Petchkoom of Thailand who saw off Nestor Bolum of Nigeria 291-4. The loser is guaranteed a bronze medal.
Rigondeaux now fights Bahodirjon Sooltonov, an accurate 19-year-old Uzbek who is ranked third in the world and who used his longer reach to outscore brave 25-year-old Canadian Andrew Kooner 44-32.
