Comaneci near-perfect at Fort Worth

Press, 6 December 1979, Page 40

Comaneci near-perfect at Fort Worth

NZPA-Reuter Fort Worth, Texas ' The Rumanian superstar, Nadia Comaneci, awed both and judges yesterjday but the Chinese womenmost of the ex-J icitement at the world gym-: nasties championships. Comaneci could not manage her frequent perfect; scores in recent inter-; national meets, but got a 9.95 on the unparallel bars . with her effortless precision and soaring skills. 9.9 on the beam, 9.85 on the vault and 9.8 in floor exercises. The Rumanian girl was barely penalised for a slip in the floor exercises when her itoes went off the mat. The'

one flaw occured when her balance faltered slightly on landing from an arabesquehop. Comaneci. looking extremely fit, and her strong- • ly-favoured Rumanian team came first with 194.25 points I out of 200 in yesterday’s: placings at the midway; point in the women’s compulsory 7 exercises. Second: )was the United States team with 192.575, led by Leslie Pyfer, who was runner-up to Nadia Comaneci in individual totals. Pyfer had 38.75 points compared with Comaneci’s 39.5. The Chinese were third in the team event with 191.40. The top Chinese perform-

' ance was by Yanhong Ma who received 9.95 for the ■ uneven bars but this was booed and hooted at by the ■ audience which felt she deserved, a perfect score. The i.Chinese team displayed tiniIform excellence in the bar, ;:beam and floor exercises The Chinese men, who came in a close fifth in the I men’s compulsories on Tuesi. day, the first day in the :i week-long competition, were ’) strongly pressing the topranked Russians and Japan;iese, who placed first and /second respectively in team i standings. Third was the American • team which gave a uniform-

i ly fine performance by al! !jits men and fourth ranked ; siwas the East German team. ;; The world gymnastics • championships is the largest :■ and most important tourna- • ment before the 1980 Olym- i , pics in Moscow. This is the first time in the com-; J petition’s 80-year history! > that it has been held Outside ■ Europe. > The world championships I : > began badly for New Zea- . land. Greg Robertson of. Christchurch fell heavily ’completing the horizontal; I.bars section of the com-? i pulsory exercises and was ;withdrawn from the com-) petition. 1 The New Zealand manager ■ Mr D. Marr said Robertson

landed virtually upside down on his neck and shoulders. “He was dazed and shaken,’’ Mr Marr said, “but a ; physical check and X-rays showed no damage. But he could not go on.” ; Mr Marr said Robertson ;had- not been training well ) I in> the week leading up to the world meet and had not I been feeling w 7 ell. I “He also has been complaining of lack Of strength 'in his shoulders. We haven’t.; been able to find anything! ; wrong to explain his j troubles." The young New Zealander I :is one of two men in the New Zealand squad which is insufficient to compete as a full team. 1

Before his fall, Robertson scored 7.4 in the rings, 9.2 in the vault and 6.8 on the parallel bars. Despite his crash he was given a horizontal bars tally of 6.85. There is no word yet on whether Robertson will be able to participate in the I individual voluntary exercises later in the week. Neil Davies of Auckland, New iZealand’s top male gymnast, performed up to expectations said Mr Marr but i his tally put him in the bottom dozen among the 158 ■men from 30 nations. Davies scored 8.4 (rings), 8.8 (vault). 8.0 (parallel bars). 8.55 (horizontal), 7.85 i(floor) and 7.8 (pommel).