GYMNASTICS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS : With Ringnald Hurt, Pressure Now Is on UCLA’s Keswick in the Finals

Lance Ringnald suffered a shoulder injury while performing on the rings and withdrew from the World Gymnastics Championships Sunday, placing extra pressure on the five remaining U.S. athletes, especially UCLA’s Scott Keswick, entering Tuesday’s optionals.

Ringnald, the only holdover on the team from the 1988 Olympics and the 1989 World Championships, was performing in the final session of compulsory competition when the injury occurred. It was only his third event of the meet.

Ringnald’s absence should not affect the Americans’ chances to qualify for the Olympics, but will make it difficult for them to win a medal. The Americans finished fifth in the compulsories to earn a berth in the later session of Tuesday’s optional competition for the first time since 1983.

“Before we had one buffer, but now we have to go five men up,” U.S. Coach Francis Allen said of the scoring system, which throws out the lowest of the six gymnasts’ scores in each event and counts five.

“Our plan now is to push Keswick, competing him last in every event. He had a storybook performance today and we think he caught the eye of every judge in the place.”

Keswick, who will be a senior at UCLA this year, put together six solid compulsory routines to finish eighth of 213 gymnasts, less than a point (.825) behind Soviet leader Igor Korobchinski. He had his best international meet two months ago when he placed fifth behind four Soviets at the Pre-Olympic Invitational in Barcelona, Spain.

“I have never felt so prepared for a meet in my life as I have for this one,” Keswick said.

“The last year and a half, things have really come together and the last two months it’s been unbelievable. I am finally doing what I have known I am capable of all along.

“But there is no more pressure on me now than on the rest of the team. All five scores count.”

Ringnald was hanging on the rings in the cross position with his arms outstretched when he suddenly felt “like I had no shoulder,” he said. He tried to continue his routine but dropped to the mat. He will be examined today.

Ringnald’s shoulder was examined about a week ago when he felt some pain, but no inflammation was found and he continued to be strong in practice.

The Americans finished the compulsories 6.15 points behind the Soviet Union but 2.275 behind second place Germany and 1.5 ahead of sixth-place Korea.

In the second round of women’s compulsories Sunday, U.S. Coach Bela Karolyi sent in what he called his “big shots,” national champion Kim Zmeskal and No. 2-ranked Betty Okino.

And they got big scores.

Entering today’s final compulsory sessions, Okino is in third place, about .12 of a point behind Soviet leader Tatiana Lisenko and Zmeskal is sixth, .21 off the lead. Okino had her best compulsory meet, scoring a 9.925 on beam, 9.8 on the uneven bars, 9.862 on floor and 9.775 on vault.

The Americans have a good chance to finish in the top three after today’s session, when Michelle Campi and Shannon Miller compete. The optionals begin Tuesday.

Kerri Strug and Hilary Grivich, who competed earlier, and are in 10th and 13th place, respectively.

Gymnastics Notes

In addition to the three American gymnasts from UCLA--Chainey Umphrey, Chris Waller and Scott Keswick--there are three other Bruin gymnasts in the meet: Isidro Ibarrondo finished the compulsories in 123rd place for Argentina, Tony Pineda was 107th for Mexico and Ron Kaplan was 39th for Israel.

Eun Jin Cho of Korea started her compulsory floor routine Friday night when someone realized the wrong music was playing. The officials stopped her routine, put on the official required compulsory music and had her start over. Her final score of 9.0 infuriated Korean officials, who filed a protest. Meanwhile, Cho went back to her hotel, ate dinner and went to sleep. She was awakened and told she had to go back to the arena and repeat her routine. She arrived in time to perform after the last competitor of the late session; her final score was 9.237.