Gymnastics: Gogean's golden bonus

Sunday 07 September 1997 18:02 EDT
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Gina Gogean, of Romania, yesterday gave herself the perfect retirement present, matching gold medals from the individual apparatus finals at the World Championships in Lausanne. Her two golds in the beam and floor disciplines were enough to place Romania ahead of Russia in the final medal positions.

The day rounded off a brilliant week for the 19-year-old, who began the Championships by leading Romania to a third consecutive women's team title on Thursday. She also won a bronze in the vault. "I didn't want to retire without winning a medal. I don't have the same confidence that I can still compete at this level in two years when the Championships will be in China, so it is the right time to retire," Gogean said.

The judges appreciated herperformance in the floor exercise as much as the audience, awarding her a mark of 9.800. That was enough for Gogean to pip her Russian rival Svetlana Khorkina, who received the same score, successfully defending her world title through her superior qualifying mark. Gogean's day started by winning the beam, again getting the better of Khorkina, this time by 0.13 of a point.

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