Gymnastics: Teenagers repel the American invasion

By EUGENE BINGHAM in Athens

They came to conquer, but in the end they were mere spectators to the East European rearguard.

Having done all they could to overcome the reigning Olympic champions, the United States women's artistic gymnasts marched to the side of the hall to sit and wait.

On the floor at the centre of the vast indoor hall early yesterday, the Romanians, winners at Sydney in 2000 and medallists at every Games since 1976, were the last team left performing.

The climax was a simple matter: if the Romanians excelled in their floor routines, they would be champions once more. If they failed, the pre-competition favourites and world champion United States would repeat their 1996 victory.

In the crowd, one spectator seemed especially fixated. Nadia Comaneci, who ushered in an era of Romanian dominance with her perfect 10s in Montreal in 1976, wondered if it would be her former countrywomen or those from her adopted home who would prevail.

All night, the Romanians had looked in command, marching to their apparatus, lips pursed. At one point, American Terin Humphrey, 18, whose nickname is Little Scoob, had smiled cautiously at a Romanian rival, the tiny, muscular Oana Ban. Even at 1.39m (4ft 7in), Ban's reply - a fixed stare through Humphrey and a flexing of her hands - was intimidating.

The Americans had made a perfect landing at the top of the leader board after the second round of apparatus, the uneven bars, when Humphrey and team captain Courtney Kupets out-performed the Romanians (including Ban).

Meanwhile, in the blazing red uniforms of Russia, the queen of gymnastics, Svetlana Khorkina, was desperate to grab the crowd's attention as much as the lead.

Khorkina is tall at 1.64m (5ft 5in). So tall, that her early coaches encouraged her to switch to rhythmic gymnastics. She persevered and won fame as an Olympic and world champion and as a cover-girl, including photo spreads in men's mags Maxim and Playboy.

All legs and a gaunt face, Khorkina sought to dazzle on the beam, nailing a dismount that had the crowd roaring. But it was not to be Russia's night, and she shook her head as her beam score of 9.437 flashed up on the scoreboard to the disapproving whistles of the crowd.

On the beam the Romanian teens showed poise and maturity. Their coach, Octavio Belu, said later that he was unfazed by the fact that the Americans had taken the lead.

"You must always stay cool, you must wait until the last rotation," he said. He asked - unsuccessfully - Catalina Ponor to stop looking at the television monitors.

Maybe what she saw inspired her. Ponor's 9.762 routine on the beam was the best of the night.

At the last rotation, the Americans knew they had to score highly on the floor after their solid but unspectacular beam performance.

It was the same on the floor: sound but not enough.

Under pressure, the Romanians flick-flacked and danced to victory, the crowd clapping to their eastern European rhythms.

When Ponor landed a last double back somersault and thrust her hands skywards, the team did not need to wait for the 9.750 score to flash up to know they had won.