Nemov takes centrestage

SYDNEY, SEPT. 25. The Men's all-around gymnastics champion Alexei Nemov won the horizontal bar title here on Monday, giving the 24- year-old Russian the biggest medal haul among all Olympic athletes for the second Games in a row.

Nemov also won a bronze on parallel bars during the last day of gymnastics competition to finish with six medals and just missed a seventh by finishing fourth in the vault, an event where he had been the reigning Olympic champion. The Sydney medal count for Nemov also includes all-around gold, silver in the floor exercise and prior bronzes in team and pommel horse.

``I feel Lucky, just very lucky,'' Nemov said. I came to the Olympics hoping that I would be able to win one medal, any medal. And I wanted to perform well. I did not expect to perform so well. Everything went my way.``

Nemov also captured six medals at the 1996 Olympics, including gold in team and vault, silver in all-around and bronzes in horizontal bar, pommel horse and floor exercise.

A spectacular performance on the bar topped by a high backflip release move gave Nemov a golden finish with 9.787 points. France's Benjamin Varonian had the same total but Nemov won as a result of better overall placings by judges.

Nemov plans to compete next at the World Cup in December in Glasgow, Scotland, but will spend most of the next six months relaxing and celebrating. ''I must take some time off,`` he said. ''I'm not made of steel. I'm not a robot.``

In other apparatus finals, Elena Zamolodtchikova edged Russian teammate Svetlana Khorkina for the floor exercise crown, China's Liu Xuan won the balance beam, China's Li Xiaopeng won on parallel bars and Gervasio Deferr, 19, won Spain's first-ever Olympic gymnastics medal, taking gold in the vault.

On a day when most vaulters struggled with landings, Deferr scored 9.712 points with Russia's Alexey Bondarenko second at 9.587 and Poland's Leszek Blanik third at 9.475, edging Nemov for bronze by .019. ''I thought I had a chance, but I wasn't really thinking of winning,`` Deferr said.

Nemov landed on his rear on his first vault, a tucked double somersault which received a 9.262. His second try, a handspring into a twisting flip, ended with only a small step backwards, leaving him just short of the podium. ''I worked like an automation,`` Nemov said. ''I did not think about what I was doing.``

China's Li Xiaopeng won the parallel bars crown with 9.825 points, although only one judge named him alone as the top performer. Reigning world parallel bars champion Lee Joo-Hyung of South Korea scored 9.812 to edge Nemov at 9.800.

Zamolodtchikova, who turned 18 last Tuesday, had won the vault title after only being allowed to compete because Khorkina dropped out. Then she swiped gold from the former Playboy pin-up girl. ''I'm very upset about not winning the gold but it was good to have the crowd supporting me,`` Khorkina said, adding that she has not decided whether or not to retire for a likely model career. Khorkina scored 9.812 and looked to add floor gold to her uneven bars crown.

All-around champion and reigning world floor exercise champion Andreea Raducan of Romania fell back by touching down her right hand to steady herself on a landing and Simona Amanar, the all- around runner-up, 1996 Olympics floor runner-up and 1999 world floor runner-up, stepped out on her final landing and settled for third. But ''Zamo`` wowed the crowd with an upbeat routine to American jazz music and won with 9.850.

''I didn't `pinch' the gold,`` she said. ''I wasn't thinking I had to beat Svetlana. I just did my routine. Everything else was up to the judges.``

China's Liu Xuan, 21, captured the balance beam crown with 9.825 points with Russian 17-year-old Ekaterina Lobazniouk second at 9.787 and Russia's Elena ProduNova third at 9.775.

''This will be the perfect way to finish my career,`` Liu said. ''After 1996, I thought I wouldn't carry on. The results I have had have carried me on. To be able to get this gold medal is the best result ever.``

Reigning world all-around champion Maria Olaru of Romania was sixth at 9.700 with Chinese world balance beam champion Ling Jie, 17, a disappointing seventh at 9.675. Ivan Ivankov, who missed the 1996 Olympics after tearing his right achilles tendon two weeks before the Atlanta Games, missed his last chance to capture an Olympic medal at these games after disappointment in qualifying and all-round.

- AFP

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