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Ukranian Wins Rhythmic Gold

ATHENS, Ga. -- Not even a botched routine could tarnish Ekaterina Serebryanskaya's gold-medal performance.

The Ukrainian earned perfect 5s in composition for each of her four routines and finished with 39.683 points Sunday to win the Olympic rhythmic gymnastics individual all-around.

Ianina Batyrchina of Russia won the silver and Elena Vitrichenko of Ukraine took the bronze. Amina Zaripova of Russia was fourth and Bulgaria's Maria Petrova, who shares the world champion title with Serebryanskaya, finished fifth.

The only American in the individual competition, Jessica Davis, didn't make it past the qualifying round. The San Anselmo, Calif., native finished 30th out of 37 competitors.

Serebryanskaya looked as if she had the gold locked up after turning in three nearly flawless routines. She earned 9.95s -- the highest score of the competition -- on her rope, ball and clubs routine, and was awarded perfect 5s for composition in each.

But on her final routine, Serebryanskaya misjudged a toss of her ribbon, throwing it a little too far away from her. When she went to grab it, all she caught was air.

She walked off the floor with a smile on her face, but started shaking her head as she sat down to wait for her score. She was awarded a 9.833 -- and another 5 on composition -- with Petrova and Vitrichenko still left to compete.

Petrova was solid, but not spectacular. Then Vitrichenko, one of Serebryanskaya's closest friends, took the floor and turned in one of the best performances of the competition. She had the crowd clapping as she twirled and tossed her ribbon and gracefully twisted her body.

Vitrichenko seemed to have more flair and flexibility all afternoon, but was never a match for Serebryanskaya's grace. The last routine was no different as she earned a 9.816. That dropped her to third behind both Serebryanskaya and Batyrchina, who had botched her ribbon routine, too.

The crowd booed, and Vitrichenko stared at the scoreboard as if she couldn't believe what she saw.

Petrova was solid in every routine, but she never drew the high scores awarded to Serebryanskaya, Batyrchina and Vitrichenko. When she received a 9.783 for what appeared to be a near-flawless ball routine, the crowd at the University of Georgia Coliseum booed while Petrova shrugged her shoulders.