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Romania Won!!! Romania won its fifth consecutive world team title, topping Russia and the USA for the gold medal. In an error-filled team final, Romania was the only team without a single fall. Romania opened with a 28.061 on vault, with a double-twisting Yurchenko and piked front 1/2 from Andreea Ulmeanu. Sabina Cojocar followed with a Yurchenko 1 1/2 and stuck Yurchenko double-full. Andreea Raducan anchored with a Podkopayeva and layout Podkopayeva, the latter stuck for 9.500. Relatively weak on bars, Romania could score just 25.874 on that event. But they bounced back on beam with three consecutive hit routines. Anchor Raducan nailed her set, sticking her double pike dismount for 9.675.
Sabina Cojocar (ROM) labours through her routine on bars, Stroescu is a little better with a well landed double front dismount. Romania ended on floor, starting with relatively low scores of 9.175 from Cojocar (out of bounds) and 9.075 from Ulmeanu (low landings). But needing just 8.376, Raducan earned 9.562 for the win, its seventh team gold medal in World championships history.
Cheers
errupted even before Andreea Raducan took to the floor and when she landed
her final tumble of double pike, no score was needed to deteremine the new
world champion. Even without the injured Yelena Zamolodchikova, silver medallist Russia could have won had it stayed consistent. Following a decent effort on floor, Russia came unglued on vault. Natalia Ziganshina sat down her Yurchenko 1 1/2, and Svetlana Khorkina crashed both her vaults. Despite the mistakes, Russia was actually in the lead after two rotations (thanks to weak bars from Romania). On uneven bars, first up Ziganshina could only score 8.20, after a mistake on the low bar and a fall on her dismount. Yezhova scored 9.225, and bars queen Khorkina rocked her set for 9.700. On beam, Ziganshina landed her tricky standing Arabian (9.175), followed by a wobbly set from Khorkina (8.862). Yezhova rocked her difficult routine, punctuated by a stuck 2.5 twist dismount (9.450 out of 9.800 start value). The USA began on bars with scores ranging from 8.625 from Ashley Miles to 9.087 from Tasha Schwikert. On beam, the USA rebounded after a fall from Rachel Tidd (flip flip Arabian), with a 9.237 from Schwikert and 8.937 from Tabitha Yim. On floor exercise, Miles went out of bounds on her double layout (8.987), but a great routine from Yim scored 9.412 (2.5 twist punch front-full, triple twist). Ending on vault, well-landed double-twisting Yurchenkos from Rachel Tidd and Mohini Bhardwaj helped seal up the bronze for the USA team. A popular Dutch team started off committing costly errors on their first event, with a fall from Gabrielle Wammes and large balance break from Verona van de Leur. They came back strong on vault and floor, but lost all hope for a medal with a 7.762 on uneven bars from Wammes. The mistake dropped them below Spain, led by Sara Moro who scored the third highest individual total. Moro fell on her first vault, but came back with beautiful routines on beam (9.262) and floor exercise (9.200). Elena Gomez missed her Jaeger on uneven bars (8.200) but a brilliant floor routine earned her 9.500. With multiple falls, the teams from Ukraine, Australia, and Germany crashed and burned to the sixth, seventh, and eighth spots, respectively. Ukraine swallowed an 8.250 on beam from Irina Yarodskaya (fall on piked front mount) and a 7.550 on floor from Natalia Sirobaba (falls on layout front punch double front and Arabian double front). Australia suffered early, with a 6.475 on uneven bars from Jacqui Dunn and a 7.525 on balance beam from Allana Slater. Australia ended on a positive note, with Slater's 9.400 on floor exercise.
Final Team Standings
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