Games Organisers apologise for low vault

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Sydney: Sydney Olympics organisers apologised on Friday for setting the vaulting horse five centimetres too low in the women's all-round gymnastics competition.

Russian assistant team coach Valeri Dianov had blamed the incorrectly set apparatus for problems that put favourite Svetlana Khorkina out of the medals race.

"Sydney 2000 has apologised for the error that occurred," said Liz Smylie, spokeswoman for Games organisers SOCOG, adding that the horse had been reset as soon as the mistake was spotted.

"Obviously, we regret that it happened and we'll try to make sure it doesn't happen again," she said. Francois Carrard, director-general of the International Olympic Committee, called the mistake "unfortunate".

The competition was won by Romania's Andreea Raducan. In the second rotation, Khorkina fell on her first vault off the horse. She was put completely out of the medals race by a fall from the asymmetric bars in the next rotation and finished 11th.

Though competitors in the first and second rotations were later offered a chance to vault again, Khorkina refused. "She is our best gymnast. The horse was too low," Dianov said.

Russian team-mate Ekaterina Lobaznyk said, "She was emotionally depressed after the vault. She had expected a gold medal."



(c) Reuters Limited.