Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 31, 1995 TAG: 9507310141
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: DENVER LENGTH: Medium
The final day of competition featured 10 sports, highlighted by women's gymnastics and track and field. A brief closing ceremony was scheduled Sunday night at a local amusement park.
All-around champion Kerri Strug of Tucson, Ariz., added two more gymnastics medals Sunday. Strug won the gold on the uneven bars with a score of 9.873, and won the bronze medal on the balance beam with 9.275.
Other gold medal winners in the individual competition were all-around silver medalist Heather Brink of Lincoln, Neb., on the vault (9.862), Melinda Baimbridge of Webster, Texas, on the balance beam (9.60) and Alexis Brion of Virginia Beach, Va., in the floor exercise (9.85).
Brink wound up the top medal winner, with four. Along with her gold on the vault and her silver in the all-around, she won a bronze on the uneven bars and a silver in the team competition.
The women's record for gymnastics medals at a single festival is five, shared by five people. Brink had a chance to make history with two events remaining, but fell off the balance beam and made a mistake during the floor exercise.
``I started off good and kind of went downhill from there,'' she said. ``I'm disappointed about how I did on the beam and the floor. I keep thinking about what I could have done and should have done.''
Strug, who sprained her right ankle during practice Thursday, qualified for all four individual event finals but elected to compete in only two - the uneven bars and the balance beam.
``I chose to do two events that wouldn't put too much stress on my ankle,'' she said. ``It's doing better, but the U.S. Championships are in two weeks, and I wanted to be cautious.''
In track, decathlete Dave Johnson won the bronze medal in the javelin with his best throw ever, 245 feet, 10 inches. He led after the first round, but wasn't able to hold off Ed Kaminski of Merriam, Kan., whose winning throw of 260 feet was the second best in the country this year.
Kevin Young, the 1992 Olympic champion and world record-holder in the 400-meter hurdles, finished sixth in his race. His time of 50.66 seconds was well off his world record of 46.78 and nearly two seconds slower than that of the winner, Maurice Mitchell of Chicago. Young also ran a leg on the last-place 1,600-meter relay team.
It hasn't been easy. The Denver sports market includes the Denver Broncos, Colorado Rockies, Denver Nuggets and a relocated NHL team. The Rockies and NHL team weren't even around when Denver was awarded the festival bid.
``If you talk to the athletes, if you talk to the coaches, if you talk to the governing bodies and if you talk to the officials at the Olympic Committee, they will tell you from an operational standpoint this has been one of the best festivals ever,'' said Tim Leiweke, co-chairman of the local organizing committee.
Another challenge involved the layout of the festival. The venues were spread across Denver, Colorado Springs and Boulder.
Changes in the festival are on the way. The next festival was supposed to be held in 1997, but was canceled. That means the next one will be in 1999, and USOC officials are studying ways to improve the event for the athletes and the cities.
by CNB