Nemov scrapes to gold on horizontal bar

25 September 2000

Russia's Alexei Nemov won the men's horizontal bar gold medal by the closest margin on Monday to end the artistic gymnastics programme.

Nemov scored the same points - 9.787 as France's Benjamin Varonian, and it was initially announced on the official scoreboard that the pair were joint winners.

But Nemov was later declared the winner to a bemused auditorium on a complicated tiebreak system.

Varonian took the silver and South Korea's Lee Joo-hyung claimed the bronze with 9.775 points.

Nemov's gold was his second title of the Games and his sixth medal from Sydney. It was also the 11th of his career and ensured that he bettered his five medal haul from Atlanta in 1996.

He has won two golds, a silver and three bronzes in Sydney.

There was major disappointment for Japan's Naoya Tsukahara, whose father Mitsuo invented the somersault vault that carries his surname and who was in the crowd. Tsukahara missed the bar and crashed to the mat during his programme.

From the Olympic News Service