MELBOURNE, Australia, Nov 27 - A day after winning a gold medal in her first major international competition, Nastia Liukin was at it again Sunday.
The American teen sensation showed off her litheness and athleticism with a spectacular display on the balance beam to capture her second gold of the 38th World Artistic Gymnastics Championships at Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena.
Liukin, who only became eligible to compete four weeks ago when she turned 16, was awarded 9.612 points out of a maximum 10 for her routine.
Her teammate Chellsie Memmel took the silver to make it an American one-two, the first on the beam since a Soviet Union gold-silver finish in 1991. Romania’s Catalina Ponor picked up the bronze medal.
On Saturday Liukin beat the 17-year-old Memmel by 0.075 points to win the uneven bars final. The previous day, Memmel pipped Liukin by one-thousandth of a point to claim the prestigious all-around title.
I feel great. I know I did a good routine. I knew I could pull it off. After that it was just up to the judges,'' said Liukin, who has gymnastics in her genes. Her father, Valeri, won two gymnastics gold medals at the 1988 Olympics, while her mother, Anna Kochneva, was the 1987 rhythmic gymnastics world champion. Both competed for the former Soviet Union. Liukin also picked up a silver medal in the floor exercise final in what was another American one-two finish. Alicia Sacramone, who finished third in Saturday's vault final, claimed the gold in her first world championships with a near flawless routine that earned her 9.612 points. Suzanne Harmes of the Netherlands took the bronze. I’m ecstatic. I was so nervous at first I couldn’t even watch Anastasia (Liukin) although I wanted to,’’ Sacramone said.
You know I didn't have any expectations, I just came here to do my best and you know, it happened. I just tried to make my passes consistent, make clean jumps and just do the best that I could,'' the 17-year-old from Boston added. Like Sacramone, Liukin said her first world championships had been truely memorable both for her and the entire US team, which picked up four of the 12 gold medals on offer. China and Slovenia were the only other multiple gold medal winners, with two each. The whole experience has been great. Our team has done very well overall,’’ she said. Four medals at a world championships myself, there is nothing else I can ask for.'' Meanwhile, Romania's Marian Dragulescu, bronze medallist at the Athens Olympics last year, won another medal on the vault, this time the gold, scoring an average of 9.693 points from his two spectacular attempts. Poland's Leszek Blanik took the silver while Alin Sandu Jivan of Russia picked up the bronze medal. It was a welcome tonic for Dragulescu after he finished a disappointing seventh out of eight in Saturday's floor exercise final. I feel very fantastic,’’ said the 24-year-old who also won the vault gold medal at the 2001 world championships. I trained very hard for today and I didn't want to end up like on the floor yesterday.'' Slovenian Mitja Petkovsek won the gold medal on the parallel bars with an outstanding performance that earned him 9.700 points. China's Li Xiaopeng, gold medallist at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, took the silver, while Frenchman Yann Cucherat picked up the bronze medal. It feels like a dream. I am afraid I will wake up and it won’t be real,’’ said the 28-year-old Petkovsek.
Slovenia then won their second gold medal of the championships courtesy of Alijaz Pegan in the high bar final. Competing last, the 31-year-old earned 9.662 points, dislodging Cucherat, who took the silver.
Valeri Goncharov of the Ukraine picked up the bronze medal.