Romania's Raducan Wins Gold With Flawless Flying
Romanian gymnast Andreea Raducan performed flawless floor exercises and narrowly missed another world title. But it still wasn't enough for her coach.
Like many at these World Championships, coach Octavian Belu already was looking ahead to the Olympics.
His women's team won its fourth consecutive world title, 17-year-old Maria Olaru was the all-around champion and the 16-year-old Raducan landed without a twitch in the championships' final event Saturday.
Raducan's 9.837 on the balance beam tied for the best score of the apparatus finals.
"I like being a star," she said as she signed autographs and prepared for a live interview with Romanian television.
But Belu cautioned: "I hope she won't be satisfied with this, and that she'll work hard in the future to be better and better because she has some examples here where big gymnasts, for various reasons, didn't have a good competition. She must do something now when she's young, dynamic and full of power."
In the women's floor exercises, Raducan beat Romanian teammate Simona Amanar and Russia's Svetlana Khorkina, whose 9.837 on the uneven bars was the only apparatus finals mark to match Raducan's.
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