PRE OLYMPICS: Artistic gymnastics, men s all-around final

OLYMPIC YEAR 2004

Japanese victory in the men’s all-around final

Japan’s Kensuke Murata presented the most stable performance today at the Pre-Olympic test events in the Olympic Hall in Athens. He won the all-around with the score of 54.499 in front of Maxim Deviatovski (56.011) and Yang, Tae Young from Korea (55.698)…

<<<< Kensuke Murata (JPN)

FINAL RESULTS you will find on the header...

March 18th 2004: Men’s all-around final
In a nicely set up venue which has been equiped with technical know-how and which already presented quite a bit of Olympic flair the organisers and suppliers can be happy with the course of this event. From a sportive perspective the competition probably only is a secondarily rated one in this Olympic year. Also, hardly any audience came to watch this all-around final.
From 30 gymnasts which had travelled to Athens only 21 took part in this all-around final, 24 gymnasts would have been qualified for it.
Also the third-ranked from the qualification Alexei Bondarenko couldn’t compete today. A couple of days ago he injured his hand while training a straddled salto on bars. He hardly managed to start in the qualification but then couldn’t compete anymore today.
In general for most participating nations this competition was of importance in order to test the conditions and not in order to achieve the best sportive results.

The venue for artistic gymnastics

Maxim Deviatovski

The best all-arounder today was Kensuke Murata from Japan who hardly made any mistakes. His strongest apparatus were vault (Kasamatsu 1/1 turn: 9.662) and bars (9.700): 54.499.
Maxim Deviatovski, 6th-ranked at the recent Russian Championships, also presented a good competition today. He started off with only a fair routine on rings but the following routines went better for him – especially bars with 9.587 - and he managed to reach the second place in the end: 56.011.

Yang, Tae Young

Korea’s Yang, Tae Young – the best competitor in the qualification – took the lead on rings (9.575) and presented an even better routine on bars (9.587) but then fell from the high bar on his stalder – Tkatchev combinaton. In the end his performance brought him to rank 3 with the score of 55.698.
It went similar for Rafael Martinez from Spain. He was on the 1st position after the fourth rotation but then made mistakes on bars and finally ended up on rank 4: 55.661.
The highest score of the day was reached by Vlasios Maras from the host nation Greece. For his perfect high bar routine he received the score of 9.812. In the all-around however he didn’t manage to reach a place within the TOP 12.
On Saturday & Sunday the artistic gymnastics competitions will end with the finals for men and women.

Conclusion:
An all-around with only a medium level of sportive performances. Top scores however can be given to the organisers in the Olympic city who presented a well-organised competition. It has been a good test for the Olympic events which certainly then will take place in front of sold-out audience ranks.

all-around winner Kensuke Murata (JPN)

Results:

1. Kensuke Murata JPN 56,499
2. Maxim Deviatowski RUS 56,011
3. Yang., Tae Young KOR 55,698
4. Rafael Martinez ESP 55,661
5. Florent Maree FRA 55,485
6. Alexander Artemew USA 55,447
7. Dorin Selariu (ROM) 55,073; 8. Sven Kwiatkowski GER 54,736; 9. Enrice Pozzo ITA 54,698; 10. David Kikuchi CAN 54,661; 11. Alexander Svetlichni UKR 54,624; 12. Thomas Andergassen GER 54,523.

World Champion Maras (GRE)

March 17th 2004: qualification men's all-around
30 gymnasts from 18 nations took part in this Pre-Olympic test in order to test the apparatus and the overall conditions. A bit of Olympic flair could already be noticed.

Results Qualification

From a sportive perspective today's competition has looked more like a training event: Many instabilities and it was obvious that the presure to present perfect performances has not been there for the athletes today. Only 22 participants competed a full all-around.
This however made the event to a great test event for the organisers. The score boards- system worked very well and in the second half of the competition also the provision of the press tribune (with only a few journalists however) was well organised. Communication extensions were not there and also in the press center only analog phone lines could be found. Digital/ISDN and internet connections are supposed to be there at the Olympics then.

Romania's Daniel Popescu started the competition very well with 9.537 on pommel horse. On this apparatus only Xiao, Qin from China could overtake him later with the highest score of the day 9.825. Qin started only on pommel horse. His team mate Feng, Jing is in Athens and was on the start list for parallel bars but in the end didn't compete.

Alexei Bondarenko (RUS)

The new Russian all-around champion also was one of the favorites but didn't have one of his best days today: On rings only a moderate 9.212 and then a mistake on vault where he fell on the landing of his handspring -double salto fw. tucked (9.012). In the course of the competition he nonetheless could be found on rank 3 after his high bar routine (3 flight elements in a row and a stuck landing, 9.687). However, mistakes in his floor routine (8.987) brought him back to rank 4.

Alexander Artemev (USA)

Alexander Artemev – the young American gymnast with Russian parents - showed today that he could be a strong all-around gymnast in future: Being on the third rank already after the second rotation (9.550 on high bar) he even managed to overtake Bondarenko on pommel horse (9.350) and in the end stayed on rank 3 with the score of 55.549. Only rings still are a bit his weak event (missing sovereignty and difficulty in the strength elements) and due to this he couldn't reach an even higher all-around position.

Yang, Tae Young (KOR)

Popescu who had such a good start on pommel horse couldn't hold the level of performance on vault, bars and high-bar where he had several mistakes and falls. His team mate Dorin Selariu (ROM) made only one mistake on bars where he fell from the apparatus on the very difficult element straddled salto landed on the upper arms (8.725). Through this mistake he lost the lead in the end but nonetheless he had been one of the best performers today (with e.g. a 9.575 on vault). Only one gymnast managed to overtake him: Yang, Tae Young from Korea, the only gymnast today without any major mistakes, had been second best on vault (9.450) and also presented a good high-bar routine (where he only once almost fell during a giant 1/1 turn) with layout Tkachev and a double- Tsukahara dismount (9.325).

Dorin Selariu (ROM)

His first place in the end of this qualification with the score of 56.225 in front of Romania's Selariu (56.036) and Artemev (55.549) was clear.
However, the final results in tomorrow's all-around final could look differently if less mistakes will be done by the other gymnasts.

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