China's Nan sets Raducan stiff challenge
Andreea Raducan made a stumbling start to the defence of her beam title and was upstaged by an impressive and daring routine from Asian Games champion Nan Zhang at the 36th world championships on Wednesday.
Russian Olympic champions Svetlana Khorkina and Elena Zamolodchikova discovered their gold medal prospects could be in jeopardy after both suffered contrasting fortunes on the opening day of competition.
China's Nan, who will be looking to make an impact at the 2004 Olympic Games, threw down the gauntlet to favourite Raducan with a combination of tumbles and intricate twists that drew a score of 9.625 from the judges.
Participating in her last event as a competitor, Raducan was penalised for failing to control a couple of simple jumps on the beam and also took a huge step back on landing.
While the routine bagged her the gold medal at the Glasgow grand prix just over three weeks a ago, it earned her a mere 9.312 during qualification in Debrecen.
Although the diminutive 19-year-old had little trouble completing her more intricate tumbling combinations, which included a triple back flip, she was also surpassed by European champion Lioudmila Eyova of Russia.
Eyova nailed her dismount to score 9.562.
ATHLETIC DISPLAY
Nan charmed the crowd with her athletic display, including a full twisting Korbut, the move first executed by 1972 Olympic champion Olga Korbut.
The often moody Khorkina, who opted to flaunt her balancing dexterity instead of defending her world vault title, came to grief on the apparatus when she fell off mid-routine and ended up with a poor 8.625.
But the overwhelming uneven bars favourite made no mistake on her signature event and soared to the lead with a flying display which earned her the day's highest mark of 9.737.
American Courtney Kupets and Eyova posted 9.575 to qualify joint second.
The 20-year-old Zamolodchikova failed to impress the judges on either the vault or floor exercises, the two disciplines in which she secured gold medals at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.
Having missed last year's competition through injury, the Russian has taken part in limited competition this season and still looked rusty in her favoured events.
Finishing a disappointing ninth on the floor, where Nan also led qualification in the low-scoring competition, Zamolodchikova ended her miserable day with fifth place on the vault.
FELL FOUL
Up-and-coming Russian Natalia Ziganshina also fell foul of the judges after she stepped out of the area during her exercise and incurred a huge deduction to her score.
Ziganshina, who made her mark at the 2001 championships in Ghent by capturing the silver in the all-round contest, failed to control the landing following her first sequence of tumbles and was forced to take a step back.
But she quickly made amends on her next apparatus, the vault, and somersaulted to top spot with an average of 9.387 from her two jumps.
American Ashley Postell qualified in second place.
The top 16 qualifiers from each of the four women's apparatus will progress to Friday's semi-finals.
The low-scoring nature of the competition drew harsh criticism from Australian coach, Peggy Liddick.
"I don't see any point in having the semi-finals because it's quite easy to mark out the good from the rest," she told Reuters.
"The grind of having to perform three times is hard on the girls and everyone can see that two days would be enough to see the winner."
The men's competition in Debrecen, where the all-round and team titles are not being contested and instead features only apparatus events, starts on Thursday.
