Apparatus finals

[Sarah]

Just wondering who people think will win floor and beam finals tonight. I'd love to see Anna Pavlova win beam. She's such an elegant gymnast and I felt sorry fo her coming 4th in the all around. Catalina Ponor is amazing though.

[KayJ]

I love Fei Cheng on floor, but I'm not sure if she'll win it, it'll really close between Fei Cheng and Catalina Ponor I think.

I think Anna Pavlova should win beam 'cos I think she's brill! But I love Carly Patterson too and I think it'll be really close between Carly and Catalina.

[Gingerbop]

Ok, admittedly I know bog all about judging and what deduction is taken for what. But Khorkina on bars: she didn't need to 'fall' off. It just seemed like an "oh, I'm not in exactly the right part of the swing, I'd better jump off and start again."

Now, slate me to death if you will, but how pathetic is that? She could easily have upstarted, and maybe she would have had to improvise a little to get to where she wanted to be, but just jumping off...
Has nobody else forgotten their routine and kept going anyway? Why cant one of the best gymnasts in the world do that? It made me mad.

[Sarah]

Think Fei Cheng was great on floor yesterday. She had a few mistakes but really should have got the bronze ahead of the spanish girl I reckon.

As for Khorkina falling off bars, if I remember rightly she was trying to do a giant 1 1/2 to catch the bar in undergrasp. Not sure she could have done an upstart from there since she had no swing to help her. She probably wouldn't have bothered though because she knew she wouldn't win and that's what she wanted.

[KayJ]

I was sorry for Fei Cheng coming 4th, I love her floor, but the others did brilliant floors too.

By the way, is it Fei Cheng, or Cheng Fei? :confused: On the Athens 2004 website it's Fei Cheng, but on telly they kept calling her Cheng Fei didn't they? Or am I getting mixed up?

[Crystal]

What about Khorkina's very 'dignified' exit from the competition? Storming out of the arena before all the other gymnasts had competed? Rude, if you ask me! A competitor of her experience should at least have the decency, politeness and sportsmanship to watch while the others competed.

[KayJ]

Def, I used to like Khorkina before these Olympics but I thought that was really bad stomping out like that, and I read on teletext too that she told the Russian papers that she knew she was going to lose the all round comp 'cos the judges had all decided beforehand who was going to win. That doesn't sound very sporting to me. Yet when Carly Patterson won Khorkina went and hugged her :confused:

[Anita]

You shouldn't believe everything you read in the news! Reporters have been known to make things up/"embellish" the truth;) .

I didn't see the bars final unfortunately but, maybe, she was just so upset because it was her last chance that she didn't want people to see her cry. Her reaction after losing to Carly was good because she'd done her best and been beaten by someone better on the day - after the bars she lost because she made a mistake and she probably finds that harder to take. I know I would: I'd be very annoyed, angry and upset with myself.