Bronze in men's team gymnastics is Ukraine's first in Summer Games (07/28/96)

Bronze in men's team gymnastics is Ukraine's first in Summer Games

by Roman Woronowycz

ATLANTA - The men's gymnasts became the first team to win a medal for Ukraine at the Summer Olympics when they took bronze in the team competition on July 22. They followed the Russian Federation team, which took the gold, and the Chinese who won the silver.

Individually, none of the Ukrainian men had a particularly good evening, however, four of them finished in the top 22 among all the competitors, and that was enough for third place in the over-all team standings. No other team placed more than two individuals in those spots.

Leading the way was Rustam Sharipov, whose 114.372 accumulated point total was only good enough for 10th position over all. Sharipov, clearly the rising star in the group, is a strong and disciplined performer whose best effort was in the vault.

The team's leader and one true star, Hryhoriy Misiutin, who collected a silver at the Barcelona Games in 1992 competed in only four of the six events. He scored 9.625 or better in the floor exercise, on the pommel horse, the rings and the vault. No one at NOC-Ukraine could say why he was not chosen to compete in the parallel bars and the horizontal bar.

In individual results by apparatus, team members were strongest on the vault, where Ihor Korobchynsky and Rustam Sharipov finished fifth and ninth, respectively. They also did well on the parallel bars, where the team took four of the first 22 places, lead by Sharipov in ninth. But they failed miserably on horizontal bar, where Oleksander Svitlichny fell, and Korobchynsky finished best, an uninspiring 22nd.

The Ukrainians edged the Belarusians by just a whisker, 571.541 to 571.381, with the U.S., spurred by a very loud Georgia Dome crowd of 30,788, less than a point short of third.

In fact after Svitlichny's failure on the horizontal bar, the U.S. had a chance to grab third, but did poorly on the pommel horse, when John Roethlisberger and Mihai Bagiu fell. That apparatus is generally considered the most difficult of the six rotations because it requires speed, strength and flexibility.

The Russians (576.778) and the Chinese (575.539) finished comfortably ahead of the Ukrainians. Russia's Alexei Nemov, who has made his mark at these Centennial Games, led all the competitors in individual scoring and placed in the top three in five of the six rotations.

Yet the Chinese were very much in the hunt for a gold medal until two glaring mistakes late in the competition derailed their effort. While only .651 points back of the Russians, Huang Huadong fell from the horizontal bar, the fifth of their six rotations, and then Shen Jien failed to recatch the bar after a release.

And, as quick as that, it was over, with Russia winning its first team gymnastics gold.

The Ukrainians qualified three gymnasts for the men's individual over-all competition, Korobchynsky, Sharipov and Svitlichny, which will take place on July 25. Individual competitions by apparatus begin on July 28.

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