The U.S. men’s and women’s teams lead teams from Belarus and China in the 1995 Visa Challenge at the George Mason University Patriot Center in Fairfax, Va.

Both American teams performed very strongly, with the U.S. men leading China 83.100 to 82.700. The Belarussian men have 82.450 points. For the women, the U.S. leads China 57.750 to 57.049. Belarus is in third with 56.974.

Dominique Dawes from Silver Spring, Md., leads the all-around competition with 19.337. This is her first competition of 1995 as she has spent time recovering from a foot injury. “It wasn’t one of my best competitions. It’s my first one back in ’95,” commented Dawes.

Following closely behind Dawes is 1989 World Champion Svetlana Boguinskaia from Belarus with 19.262. She is on a come-back trail and is training with world-renown coach Bela Karolyi in Houston, Texas. Boguinskaia explained, “I decided to come back because I love gymnastics. I can’t live without it! It’s fun to compete with the girls I always knew.”

In third place in the women’s all-around is Dominique Moceanu (19.250) from Houston, Texas, who also trains with Karolyi.

The men’s all-around competition is led by Vitaly Rudnitsky (28.100) from Belarus while China’s Wang Dong (27.700) is in second place. USA’s Chris Waller (27.650) from Mt. Prospect, Ill. is tied for third with Li Bo from China.

On the first night of competition, April 27, the men competed on floor exercise, pommel horse and still rings, while the women competed on vault and uneven bars. The remaining events will be contested on Friday, April 28, when the team and all- around winners will be determined.

Results from Day One of competition follow:

Men’s Team
1. USA, 83.100
2. China, 82.700
3. Belarus, 82.450

Women’s Team
1. USA, 57.750
2. China, 57.049
3. Belarus, 56.974

Men’s All-Around
1. Vitaly Rudnitsky, BLR, 28.100
2. Wang Dong, CHN, 27.700
3. Chris Waller, USA, 27.650
3. Li Bo, CHN, 27.650
5. Chainey Umphrey (Albuquerque, N.M.), USA, 27.600
6. Alexander Belanovsky, BLR, 27.550
7. Bill Roth (Mohegan Lake, N.Y.), USA , 27.450
8. Ivan Pavlovsky, BLR, 26.800
9. Dong Zhong, CHN, 26.500
10. John Macready (Los Angeles, Calif.), USA, 26.100
11. Shen Jian, CHN, 9.350

Women’s All-Around
1. Dominique Dawes (Silver Spring, Md.), USA, 19.337
2. Svetlana Boguinskaia, BLR, 19.262
3. Dominique Moceanu (Houston, Texas), USA, 19.250
4. Katie Teft (Grand Rapids, Mich.), USA, 19.125
5. Bi Wenjing, CHN, 19.112
6. Meng Fei, CHN, 19.075
7. Kellee Davis (Cambria Heights, N.Y.), USA, 19.050
8. Olga Yurkina, BLR, 18.962
9. Liu Xuan, CHN, 18.862
10. Julia Sobko, BLR, 18.562
11. Julia Yurkina, BLR , 18.425
12. Sang Lan, CHN, 17.900