Gymnastics: Cheating judges expelled

Four judges were expelled from the rhythmic gymnastics world championships yesterday for favouring teams from their own countries.

The judges made "big mistakes" on Friday and Saturday, the first two days of competition, said the International Gymnastics Federation.

The judges were removed before yesterday's finals, but the top eight finishers among the 20 countries competing in the allround on the first two days qualified for the event finals.

Those expelled were Efi Pantazidou of Greece, Larissa Lukianenko of Belarus, Marcie Lourenco of Brazil and Choi Shin-ja of South Korea. Sanctions were handed out after reviews of tapes from the first two days of events by the federation's technical committee.

The expulsions came five months after a French figure skating judge admitted she had been under pressure to "vote a certain way" at the Salt Lake City Olympics when she put a Russian pair first over Canadian skaters.