United States women will be out to gain a psychological edge over their rivals when the gymnastics world championships begin in Aarhus, Denmark, this weekend.
With the 2008 Beijing Olympics less than two years away, the leading nations will be determined to prove their worth under a new scoring system, which will be used at a major global event for the first time.
With many nations still in the process of rebuilding their teams, a Chellsie Memmel-led US squad will be the overwhelming favourites to defend the women’s team title they claimed in 2003.
Since then, the team crown has not been contested at the worlds. Trouble and strife within their rivals’ camps should give the United States an advantage despite the injury setback suffered by double world champion Nastia Liukin.
The 16-year-old handed rivals a glimmer of hope when she sprained her ankle in training 10 days ago.
Although her landing ability has been severely affected, Liukin is prepared to risk her injury on the asymmetric bars but admitted her appearance might be limited to only the team contest.
”The competition is still days away and every day it’s been getting better so we’ll see how it goes but making it to the team competition is the first priority,” Liukin told Reuters.
Liukin’s fragile ankle, though, has probably robbed fans from witnessing another dramatic battle in the all-round event.
Last year Liukin trailed champion Memmel by just ,001 points as the duo started a run of success in which American women enjoyed a 1-2 finish in four out of the five titles up for grabs in Melbourne.
Nadia Comaneci — the first gymnast to earn the now defunct perfect 10 score at an Olympics — believes her native Romanian team could challenge the United States despite still trying to adjust to a new coaching regime under Nicolae Forminte.
China, as hosts of the biggest sporting extravaganza in two years’ time, are especially keen to make an impact after a run of mediocre results over the past few seasons.
The Chinese men won the team gold at the 2000 Olympics and the 2003 worlds but finished fifth at the 2004 Olympics, while the women’s team took a bronze at Sydney, placed fourth at Anaheim three years ago and seventh at Athens.
The men’s team have been weakened by injury of Olympic champions Li Xiaopeng, Teng Haibin and Huang Xu but can count on experienced gymnasts such as defending pommel champion Xiao Qin as well as 2000 Olympic team gold winner Yang Wei.
On the women’s side, 20-year-old Zhang Nan and last year’s vault gold medallist Cheng Fei (18) will be the veterans on a young team in Denmark.
”When we made our selections, we were mainly concerned about the balance needed for the team competition,” manager Zhang Peiwen told Reuters.
Chen Yibing, one of seven Chinese competitors making their world championships debut, added: ”It’s the most important gold if you’re thinking about supremacy in the gymnastics world.”
To reign supreme in the men’s event the Chinese will need to upstage favourites Japan, who will be keen to repeat their gold medal performance from Athens.
Having led a Japanese 1-2 in the men’s all round final last year, Hiroyuki Tomita and company should be able to exploit their rivals’ weaknesses to walk away with the team accolade.
At this year’s European championships, Russia at last showed signs of emerging from a slump when they captured the continental men’s team title for the first time since 2000.
After picking up three golds and a silver — their best European result since 1998 — the Russian men could be poised to recapture their lost glory.
Four-times Olympic champion Alexei Nemov warned, however, that it may be too soon for gymnasts such as Alexei Bondarenko — making a comeback after suffering a horrendous back injury in Athens — and 2005 world rings silver medallist Alexander Safoshkin to close the gap with Japan or China.
”My main hope is that the team will finish in the top six,” the now retired Nemov told Reuters.
”I’m praying for a strong finish but we have to be realistic about our expectations this year.”
The adjudication will also come under scrutiny in Aarhus as the FIG has adopted a new system to avert any replay of the 2004 Olympic judging fiasco.
Chaos erupted during the men’s horizontal bar final when the competition was held up for more than 10 minutes as fans booed at the mark awarded to Nemov for his daring display. With no sign of the crowd settling down, the stunned judges were forced to increase Nemov’s score in front of a live television audience.
The 10 score was consigned to the scrapheap after last year’s world championships and an accumulative points scoring system — awarded for content and execution — has been implemented in its place. – Reuters