European Championships in Zaragoza
The thunder roar of one passionate country
The proud boycotte of Elena Vitrichenko
Author: Takako Kobayashi
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Looking at the Sidney Olympics, it is sure that there would be a heated atmosphere
between the representative countries, the judges and the passionate audience having
the chance to be in the competition hall. I have never ever seen until Zaragoza
so many calculated under the surface scores, and a gymnastic hall exploding with
such loud and severe protests from the audience and the present journalists. In
the morning following the individual all-around competition, all the local papers
without exception praised with the best possible words not the winner Alina Kabaeva,
but the mother and the daughter Vitrichenko. The reason for that is, let's
begin with the first apparatus in the qualifications, with small misses Kabaeva,
Raskina, Serrano win 10s, Elena with no miss only 9.783. The gymnastics hall roared
with booing and protests. Until the last day of June 4th the audience did not
cease to call her name. Ukraine has two successive gold medals from Olympic Games. Vitrichenko has this year left the Derygins School and there are many petty quarrels for deciding the participating in Sidney gymnasts, as it is announced on the internet. As a protest against her score she held a press conference for the mass media. Because of her pride, she could not take participation in the finals in C group. If everything is going like this, then maybe Vitrichenko will not have a place in the Olympic games. It seems that UEG and FIG respectively will take measures against the trouble. On the podium is the winner Alina Kabaeva. With what kind of feelings is she listening the national anthem of Russia, I wonder? The audience continues to protest against the unfairness turning their eyes towards the places of the judges. The logic of the responsible people “the scores are our highest priority” in the present situation of the competition shakes deeply the media and the journalists. Taking Kabaeva, Raskina, Barsukova and Serrano to the poidum should not be done following the same route as Zaragoza in Sidney! One of the coaches says, "The most important to be able to take good scores is to have the elements which have appeal to the judges." Is not this threatenng to RG? However the gymnasts have no guilt. There is no doubt about the abilities of Kabaeva and nobody can think of another name who can win the Olympic games. Barsukova has great abilites and beauty, Raskina and Vatkina from Belarus are strong. Serrano is very skillful. The gymnasts from Spain, Italy, Germany, Greece are strong too. Decisively, we must not accuse the gymnasts for the occurred situation. Therefore, we must insist on fair selection and scoring. The young girls are thrown in the abyss existing between the sportsmanship ideal and real situation. One of these persons is Teodora Alexandrova. Vitrichenko received a throphey from the mayor of Zaragoza and was a VIP person at the competition. But the great question mark remains. She has a great wish to go to Sidney but will she make the team? Will the story have a happy end? All the gymnasts have returned to their hard training. There are just 2 months left until Sidney... |
Thanx to Kirilka Nikolova for the translation and the attention :))