Big names stay away from Olympic gymnastics test event
28/11/2007 18:01
Big names like triple world champion Bubbly Johnson, two-time world
individual all-around titlist Yang Wei and Japan's renowned gymnast Hiroyuki
Tomita are all absent from the roster of Beijing Olympic gymnastics try-out
slated for Nov. 28 to Dec. 3.
Most of the powerhouses preferred to kept their
top gymnasts from the Olympic trial named "Beijing Gymnastic International
Invitational". Host China spared the entire men's squad for Stuttgart World
Championships from the tournament. The world men's team winners, composed of
Yang Wei, Huang Xu, Xiao Qin, Chen Yibing, Zou Kai and Liang Fuliang, were all
arranged to take early "winter training" instead of competition in the
Invitational.
China dispatched a back-up squad consisting of Lu Bin, Feng
Zhe, Guo Weiyang, Yan Mingyong, Lv Bo and Liang Mingsheng. Like what China did,
Japan held off Hiroyuki Tomita, 2005 all-around world champion, and Hisashi
Mizutori, the triple bronze medallist in Stuttgart. The only high-profile
athletes in Beijing came from high-flying Germany and South Korea.
Fabian
Hambuechen from Germany injected vigor to the tournament. He ignited the
enthusiasm of his home crowd by collecting a medal of every color at the
Stuttgart worlds. Hambuechen inspired the German team to a bronze, secured
silver in the all-round competition and rotated and released stylishly for the
horizontal bar gold.
South Korea brought all their top contestants as Kim
Dae-eun, who finished first in parallel bars in Stuttgart, and underscored
Athens Olympics all-around bronze medallist Yang Tae-young.
It's a similar
scenario in women's events. US took back their ace Bubbly Johnson, the triple
world champion in floor, all-around and women's team. Johnson's world
championships' teammates Nastia Liukin and Alicia Sacramone also said no to the
trial.
Besides the team's title, Liukin grabbed gold on the beam and silver
on the uneven bars, while Sacramone earned a silver on the floor and a bronze on
the vault.
The United States just sent Chellsie Memmel, the 2005 world
all-around champion, here with hopes of a return for the 2008
Olympics.
Memmel and fellow American Bridget Sloan, a member of this year's
world championship team, will compete in individual and all-around
events.
Romania's double Olympic champion Catalina Ponor and rising star
Steliana Nistor didn't come to Beijing.
It's China, who faltered to one gold
from three last year in the world championships, that presented a decent
line-up. China pitched women squad spearheaded by Cheng Fei, who won her third
successive vault title in Stuttgart.
The other three gymnasts all have
experiences from world championships. Pang Panpan and Zhou Zhuoru are members
from the 2006 world women's team champions, while the teenager Jiang Yuyuan
impressed everybody in this year's world championships.
Chinese women team
experienced some humiliating errors at the Stuttgart worlds, so they would like
to take advantage of the Olympic test run to pull everything back on
track.
It's not strange for most of the notable gymnasts being absent.
Everything came to surface with the gymnastic worlds just wrapping up, so the
leading national teams would prefer to make full use the last few months on
Olympic preparations rather than being interrupted by
competitions.
xinhua
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