Ukraine’s Lilia Podkopayeva and China’s Li Xiaoshuang won the all- around titles at the 1995 World Gymnastics Championships in Sabae, Japan. In the women’s competition, Svetlana Chorkina from Russia took the silver medal and Lavinia Milosovici from Romania earned the bronze. In the men’s competition, 1992 Olympic Gold Medalist Vitaly Scherbo from Belarus placed second, and Russia’s Evgeni Chabaev finished third.

The U.S. women had a strong showing in the all-around competition, with two gymnasts placing among the top 10. Reigning U.S. National Champion Dominique Moceanu (Hollywood, Calif.) finished in fifth place, while ’92 Olympian Kerri Strug (Tucson, Ariz.) took seventh. Two-time World Champion Shannon Miller (Edmond, Okla.) finished 12th, competing with an injury to her left foot.

Moceanu commented, “I went out aggressive and did the best I could. I’m happy with fifth. I thought at the end that I could hold on to third, but it didn’t happen. Maybe next time!”

Bela Karolyi, U.S. head coach, and personal coach of Moceanu, explained, “Sure I’m pleased with Dominique’s fifth place. It came out exactly how I wanted. It’s the best thing that could have happened leading up to the Olympics.”

On the men’s side, Blaine Wilson, competing in his first World Championships, was the highest finisher for the U.S., placing 25th. Four-time National Champion John Roethlisberger (Minneapolis, Minn.) had trouble during his floor exercise and parallel bar routines and finished 30th. Jair Lynch (Washington, D.C.) took 31st.

Head Coach Peter Kormann said, “I was proud of the guys today, but each of the U.S. gymnasts had a break. It was Blaine (Wilson’s) first World Championships. It was good for him. He only had two breaks in 18 routines. We need to go back to the gym and work harder and improve our difficulty.”

“John (Roethlisberger) fell off high bar and tried a double twisting, double back dismount on floor. John’s only competed this one other time at the Pan American Games, and he made it. John knew he had to upgrade his difficulty tonight, and he went all out,” added Kormann.

Women’s Final All-Around Results:
(PLACE, ATHLETE, COUNTRY, AA)
1, Lilia Podkopayeva, UKR, 39.248
2, Svetlana Chorkina, RUS, 39.130
3, Lavinia Milosovici, ROM, 39.086
4, Simona Amanar, ROM, 39.409
5, Dominique Moceanu, USA, 38.886
6, Mo Huilan, CHN, 38.754
7, Kerri Strug, USA, 38.749
8, Dina Kochetkova, RUS, 38.686
9, Mao Yanling, CHN, 38.630
10, Elena Piskun, BLR, 38.530
11, Irina Boulakhova, UKR, 38.462
12, Shannon Miller, USA, 38.386
13, Laetitia Begue, FRA, 38.311
14, Gina Gogean, ROM, 38.280
15, Vasiliki Tsavdaridou, GRE, 38.267
16, Svetlana Boguinskaia, BLR, 38.261
17, Joana Juarez, ESP, 38.217
18, Elvire Teza, FRA, 38.199
19, Oksana Chusovitina, UZB, 38.180
20, Mercedes Pacheco, ESP, 38.167
21, Elena Grosheva, RUS, 37.955
22, Monica Martin, ESP, 37.867
23, Adrienn Nyeste, HUN, 37.855
24, Anna Mirgorodskaia, UKR, 37.799
25, Nikolett Krausz, HUN, 37.705
26, Olga Yurkina, BLR, 37.667
27, Meng Fei, CHN, 37.567
28, Risa Sugawara, JPN, 37.435
29, Isabelle Severino, FRA, 37.205
30, Kyriaki Firinidou, GRE, 37.100
31, Miho Hashiguchi, JPN, 37.086
32, Joanna Hughes, AUS, 36.954
33, Yvonne Pioch, GER, 36.768
34, Virginia Karentzou, GRE, 36.705
35, Soraya Carvalho, BRA, 36.292
36, Irina Evdokimova, KAZ, 35.168

Men’s Final All-Around Results:
(PLACE, ATHLETE, COUNTRY, AA)
1, Li Xiaoshuang , CHN, 57.998
2, Vitaly Scherbo , BLR, 57.499
3, Evgeni Chabaev , RUS, 57.248
4, Alexei Voropaev , RUS, 57.212
5, Valeri Belenki , GER, 57.198
6, Yoshiaki Hatakeda , JPN, 56.999
7, Yuri Chechi , ITA, 56.861
8, Zhang Jinjing , CHN, 56.799
9, Han Yoon-soo , KOR, 56.762
10, Andreas Wecker , GER, 56.612
11, Cristian Leric , ROM, 56.562
12, Alexandre Svetlichnyi , UKR, 56.536
13, Hikaru Tanaka , JPN, 56.525
14, Daisuke Nishikawa , JPN, 56.375
15, Patrice Casimir , FRA, 56.337
16, Zoltan Supola , HUN, 56.324
17, Rustam Charipov , UKR, 56.312
18, Ivan Ivankov , BLR, 56.300
19, Vladimir Chamenko , UKR, 56.162
20, Vitaly Rudnitski , BLR, 56.150
21, Jordan Jovtchev , BUL, 56.112
22, Boris Preti , ITA, 56.024
23, Dmitri Karbonenko , RUS, 55.849
24, Jesus Carballo , ESP, 55.800
25, Blaine Wilson , USA, 55.750
26, Krasimir Dounev , BUL, 55.737
27, Andrei Kratsov , AUS, 55.600
28, Jung Jin-soo , KOR, 55.412
29, Sergei Fedorchenko , KAZ, 55.349
30, John Roethlisberger , USA, 55.300
31, Jair Lynch , USA, 55.262
32, Szilveszter Csollany , HUN, 54.725
33, Dimitar Lunchev , BUL, 54.012
34, Nistor Sandro , ROM, 53.975
35, Li Donghua , SUI, 53.925
36, Adrian Ianculescu , ROM, 50.900

The top eight gymnasts on each event from the team competition qualified for the individual event finals on Oct. 9-10.

Miller qualified for all four event finals, while Moceanu qualified on balance beam and floor exercise. Strug qualified for vault finals, and Jaycie Phelps (Cincinnati, Ohio) qualified for uneven bars.

For the men, Roethlisberger qualified for still rings and Mihai Bagiu (Albuquerque, N.M.) for pommel horse.

ADDITIONAL QUOTES:

  • Kerri Strug: “This finish is really special to me because it’s the first time I’ve made all-around finals, and I’m seventh in the World! I felt more confident at this event than in the past.”
  • Shannon Miller: “I have no regrets about competing. I just wish I could have done better. I lost concentration on bars. I can’t dwell on what happened tonight. I’ll just come back tomorrow and try to do better.”
  • Peter Kormann: “Jair (Lynch) did a great parallel bars routine today, but sat down on his dismount. He went a little early. It was very disappointing because his routine was so good.”
  • Li Xiaoshuang: “I’m satisfied with my performance. I did my best. Next year’s Olympics is a new challenge. Alexei Nemov (Russia) did not compete today, and he is at my same level. I hope I can compete with him next year, then next year’s all-around will be more exciting.”