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Alina
Kozich of Ukraine became the 50th European all-around
champion in the history
of the sport by beating Daniela
Sofronie and Yelena Zamolodchikova.
The competition started with a bang when Svetlana
Khorkina crashed her Khorkina II vault, landing on all fours.
She fought back well through the next three rotations but just came up
short of a medal.
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Meanwhile
Daniela Sofronie looked like the winner after vault and bars (nice
barani transistion, stalder 1 ½ to Jaeger) but ran into
problems on her beam mount when she missed two elements. But
after a solid floor, most people thought Romania had another
gold in the bag.
Meanwhile Alina Kozich had
started well with a 1 ½ twisting Yurchenko and showed smooth
swing and a beautiful Bi turn on bars. A missed connection on
beam left her start value low. Competing as the final gymnast on
floor, she got a big crowd reaction for a sultry floor
performance. “When I walked off the floor, I though I was
second,” Kozich confessed later, “but then I looked at the
scoreboard and saw my name in first place. I just couldn’t
believe it.”
Kozich was tearful throughout the medal ceremony but visibly
happy at the press conference.
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The "historical" Champion Alina
Kozich, and her coach
Sergey Butsula (UKR) |
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Veteran
Yelena Zamoldochikova was equally happy with a bronze. “I
had so many injuries in the past few years and couldn’t do the
all-around at all, so just being able to compete well here was fantastic.”
Elena
Gomez was in the running for a medal until she came off beam
on her side somi but fought back impressively with a 9,600 on floor
where she earned a lot of applause for a quadruple spin to Popa.
Irina Yarotskaya, also a medal
contender, fell off beam on her Onodi.
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'Lady' Khorkina -
today without medal!
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>> Detailed
Results
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