Gymnastics: Gutsy top-10 showing by Boon after fall

Auckland gymnast Alethea Boon overcame a fall in the vault to lift herself up the Commonwealth rankings with a top-10 finish in the women's all-round individual final.

Boon qualified 12th, but ended the day in 10th spot with a total of 33.687 points.

Her less experienced team-mates, Nicola Wells and Kate Brocklehurst, finished 15th and 18th respectively on 32.612 and 32.225.

Canadian Kate Richardson won the gold medal with 36.750, with England's Beth Tweddle (36.387) taking silver and Australian Allana Slater (36.362) the bronze.

The New Zealand trio's scoring was fairly consistent. But Boon failed to repeat the high-scoring vault she pulled off in the teams' final on Sunday.

A fall on her first vault resulted in a 8.35 mark, but she bumped up her average vault mark by scoring 8.755 on her second attempt.

"Alethea had a pretty good performance overall. Even though her vault mark was down, some of her others were up on yesterday," New Zealand gymnastics team manager Steve Penman said.

"Nicki did everything neat and tidy and Kate's marks were slightly above what she would normally get. On the floor she got 8.4 which is pretty good for her, and she's had a really good competition right through."

Brocklehurst is the youngest member of the team, having turned 15 only in May, and Penman said she and her team-mates had thrived in the Games atmosphere.

"Apart from Alethea, they've not competed in anything of this magnitude, but they've learned a lot and want to return to do it again."

Auckland University student Daniel Good (48.500) was 20th in the men's individual all-round final, with some consistent scores, topped off by an 8.8 for the vault.

Good's preparation had been hampered by a broken wrist bone, which had to be operated on six weeks before the Games.

England's Kanukai Jackson took the men's gold medal with a tally of 55.025.

- NZPA

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