OLYMPICS/ Spotlight
24 gymnastics teams clinch berths for 2008 Olympics
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-09-05 15:24
Stuttgart -- With the completion of the qualification rounds at the 40th World Gymnastics Championships, team tickets for 2008 Beijing Olympic Games were allocated to as many as 24 national teams on Tuesday.
Yang Wei of China competes on the floor during the all-around team competition at the 40th World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Stuttgart September 3, 2007. Defending China took the lead in front of Japan and Russia with 374.275 points. [Reuters] |
As for the men's teams, team ticket holders are Olympic host China, who also takes the first place in the qualification round of the current tournament, followed by Japan, Germany, the United States, Russia, Romania, Spain, South Korea, France, Italy, Canada and Belarus.
The first eight of them will also compete in Wednesday's team final at the current world championships.
Tickets for the women's teams were settled earlier on Sunday when the girls finished their qualification round.
12 women's team who have brought home the Beijing Olympic tickets are the United States, China, Romania, Russia, Italy, Britain, France, Brazil, Ukraine, Germany, Australia and Japan.
Prior to the current tourney, a strong Australian team was considered to be a definite contender for the team final or might even finish on podium at the championships.
However, too many mistakes in the qualification prevented them from reaching a higher position.
Anyway, with a ticket to Beijing in hand, the Australian girls can compete for the medals next year in China.
As for individual gymnasts from those countries or regions who have not got tickets to Beijing, they can get so-called "wild card " allocated by the International Gymnastics Federation according to the performance they will show before August 2008.
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