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20 September 2000
Alexei NEMOV (RUS) won the gold medal in the men's all-around competition on Wednesday, scoring an impressive 58.474 points. The silver medal went to The People's Republic of China's YANG Wei, 58.361, and the bronze to Oleksandr BERESH (UKR), 58.212.
NEMOV is the only gymnast in the Sydney Superdome, who has so far, gone through the Qualifications, the Team Final and the All-Around Final without making mistakes. He took the lead from the beginning of the competition starting on the high bar scoring 9.787.
NEMOV continued building up his winning score: 9.800 on floor, 9,775 on pommel horse, 9.687 on rings (which are his problematic apparatus because of a persistent shoulder injury), 9.650 on vault and 9.775 on parallel bars.
Meanwhile, the gymnasts behind NEMOV kept changing their positions in the top 10, with LEE Joo-Hyung (KOR) coming second after the first rotation and the twice world champion Ivan IVANKOV (BLR) after the second rotation.
Once IVANKOV was replaced by 20-year-old YANG, the competition turned into a 'NEMOV-YANG' dual for the gold, while Oleksandr BERESH (UKR), Iordan IOVTCHEV (BUL), Blaine WILSON (USA) and Oleksandr SVITLYCHNYY (UKR) were left fighting for the bronze.
With one apparatus to go, NEMOV was still leading the field but the gap between him and YANG was as little as 0.088.
On his last piece, the parallel bar, NEMOV scored 9.775, which won him his well-deserved all-around Olympic title.
YANG added a silver medal to the historic Chinese Team gold, scoring 9.750 on the pommel horse.
BERESH performing immediately after the Chinese on the same apparatus, scored 9.762 to take the bronze medal.
IVANKOV finished the competition on his weakest apparatus, the floor, scoring only 9.575 points placing him in the 4th position, 0.188 behind BERESH.
SVITLYCHNYY (UKR), 28, and the oldest of the finalists, performed a personal best, placing 5th with 57.950 points followed by Blaine WILSON (USA) 57.936.
Olympic news service
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