Khorkina claims gold at last

Svetlana Khorkina finally showed her bars prowess

Russian gymnastic star Svetlana Khorkina finally came good on Sunday - after suffering costly errors during both the team competition and all-round final.

Khorkina lived up to her billing as the world's greatest performer on the uneven bars by claiming gold in the discipline during the individual apparatus finals.

After running through the routine without a hitch, the 21-year-old walked to the low bar, grabbed it with both hands and kissed it.

She won with a score of 9.862. China's Ling Jie was second at 9.837, with compatriot Yang Yun third at 9.787.

Fallen

Khorkina had fallen off the bars in the team competition and then tumbled again, this time on the vault, during the all-round final.

She still qualified for the vault final but, after learning that the horse had been set too low, decided to pull out.

Vault medallists Raducan, Zamolodtchikova and Lobazniouk

Her replacement, Russia's Elena Zamolodtchikova, won gold.

"I was vaulting very badly and I didn't want to," said Khorkina. "It was too soon.

"It's very difficult. It hurts a lot. It's cruel to all the participants who had a non-standard vault. It's quite possible to get killed if you're not careful. Those two centimetres could decide the future of an athlete."

"It would not have been good on my part if, well, it's still a problem to me, the vaulting."

Apology

The International Gymnastics Federation issued an apology statement on Sunday which said it "regrets very much the error of the vault height setting".

The statement added: "It is very unfortunate that this situation occurred during the Olympic Games and FIG regrets the duress that the situation placed on some gymnasts."

The statement said the officials who made the error were reprimanded and new specification checks are being made on all equipment used.

Zamolodtchikova won with 9.731 points, just head of Romanian Andreea Raducan, the Olympic all-around champion, and Ekaterina Lobazniouk of Russia.