|
|
|
 |
|
|
All-alone Moceanu claims first major all-around victory
Posted: Sunday August 16, 1998 03:50 PM
NEW YORK (CNN/SI) -- Even for such a young girl, the individual gold medal was still a long time coming. Moceanu, the shortest, youngest member of the Olympic-champion U.S. women's gymnastics team in Atlanta, won the all-around gold medal at the Goodwill Games on Sunday. "I was very emotional," she said. "I've always dreamed of this moment. I never won anything this big before." In 1996, Moceanu was part of the first U.S. women's team to win a gold medal. But that was a team effort. This one, she got all by herself. "The Olympics was very special and will always hold a special place for me," Moceanu said. "For that time, it was great." That time, though, seems a lifetime away for the gymnast who
won't turn 17 until the end of September. She has been through
plenty since then.
"I was out of shape for a little while," she said. "At the
time, everything seemed so hard. It was never-ending and I wondered
if it all was going to pay off."
On Sunday, it did.
Moceanu claimed the $10,000 first prize with a wire-to-wire win.
She finished with a score of 38.662, well in front of Maria Olaru
of Romania with 37.975. Another Romanian, Simona Amanar, was third
with 37.850.
World champion Svetlana Khorkina of Russia finished a
disappointing seventh at 37.412 after a costly fall near the end of
the floor exercise, her final discipline.
Moceanu took the lead on the first rotation with a 9.625 on the
uneven bars and was comfortably ahead all night.
A crowd of 5,179 at the Nassau Coliseum watched the Houston
teenager put on a nearly flawless demonstration as she moved to the
balance beam, the floor exercise and finally the vault.
"A couple of things I could have done better," she said.
First in the rotation on the final discipline, she clinched the
gold with scores of 9.55 and 9.625 on her two attempts, then
watched the other 10 gymnasts complete their exercises.
"To come back after all I've been through makes me very
happy," she said.
For Sierra Sapunar of Wyoming, Ohio, the toughest part of the
night came during warmups. As she practiced her first routine, the
vault, she tumbled heavily, landing on her knees.
She was bent over, in tears, as her coach and trainer rushed to
her side. Shaken by the fall, Sapunar scored 8.800 on her first
vault, the poorest score of the night on that discipline.
"It definitely shook me up a little bit," she said. "I knew I
had to regain my focus, keep going and shake it off."
She recovered with a 9.225 on her second attempt but the average
9.012 still left her buried at the bottom of the standings, 10th of
the 11 competitors after the first apparatus. She spent the rest of
the night battling her way back up the standings and finished fifth
with 37.587.
| |||||||||||||||||||||
Copyright © 1999 CNN/SI. A Time Warner Company. Terms under which this service is provided to you.
| |||||||||||||||||||||
