The Sydney SuperDome will play host on Tuesday to the cream of international gymnastics as they perform in a gala exhibition to mark the end of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games artistic gymnastics competition.
The gala, which begins at 12 noon, will showcase a variety of gymnastic disciplines including acrosports, tumbling, synchronised trampolining, synchronized horizontal bar, aerobics and rhythmic gymnastics.
Some past Olympic champions are also expected to perform for the crowd, but organisers are keeping the former champions’ identities under wraps until the gala gets underway.
The exhibition will begin with Australia’s Pavel MAMINE, Brennon DOWRICK, Damian ISTRIA and Martin TEALE performing on the rings. This will be followed by Igor VIHROVS (LAT) repeating his gold medal winning performance on the floor.
Twice Olympic champion and star of Russia, Svetlana KHORKINA, will perform on the uneven bars. Another of the most outstanding gymnasts from the Games and double gold medallist, Elena ZAMOLODTCHIKOVA (RUS), will perform her medal winning routine on the floor.
The most highly decorated gymnast to come out of the Games, Alexei NEMOV (RUS), will re-live his experiences on the horizontal bar displaying his superior skill. Hungarian Szilveszter CSOLLANY, gold medallist on rings, will also demonstrate his talent.
Belarus, the world champions from Seville in 1998, are hot contenders for a medal in the rhythmic gymnastics group exercise and will demonstrate their talents utilising the club. The 1999 World Champion and three times European Champion, Alina KABAEVA, will perform using the ball in a rhythmic gymnastics routine. Youlia RASKSINA (BLR) will perform with the ribbon. The rhythmic hoop will also be demonstrated by world and European champion, Eva SERRANO (FRA).
Russian world champions from 1999 will also perform using the ribbon and hoop.
China’s LI Xiaopeng, medallist on the parallel bars at the World Cup in Sabae, Japan in 1998 and first place winner on the vault in Tianjin, 1999, will show the crowd exactly why he won the gold medal in Sydney on parallel bars.
Australian favourite, Allana SLATER, is sure to dazzle the audience with her beautiful floor routine to the tune of ‘I Still Call Australia Home’.
The women’s trio of Alla KOVPOSHA, Yelena KOSENKO and Ganna DEMYDENKO will do an acrosports presentation, demonstrating the best in floor sports acrobatics.
Thirty-one-year old, Alexandre MOSKALENKO (RUS), the first-ever Olympic gold medallist for the sport of gymnastics-trampoline and four times world champion, will demonstrate his talents during a solo trampoline performance. Oksana TSYHULEVA and Olena MOVCHAN, from the Ukraine, are also set to display the wonders of synchronised trampoline, along with male counterparts David MARTIN and Emmanuel DURAND, both from France. World champion, Alexei KRYJANOVSKI, will also feature in a men’s tumbling presentation on the trampoline.
Husband and wife team and Russian and European champions, Tatiana SOLOVIOVA and Vladislav OSKNER, both from Russia, will demonstrate their mixed pair aerobics routine. Latin Americans Rodrigo MARTINS, Ibsen NOGUEIRA and Admilson VITORIO, will also perform in an aerobics trio.
The gala day should provide the crowd with two hours of spellbinding entertainment.
Source: SOCOG Olympic News Service sw/hl