GYMNASTICS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS : Soviet Women Take Early Lead, U.S. Is Second

Soviet Svetlana Boguinskaia remains the closest thing to a 10.

The reigning world champion of women’s gymnastics threw her opening punch Monday in the Hoosier Dome, a combination of 9-plus scores that at least for another day deflected the Americans’ bid to dethrone the heavily favored Soviet squad.

The Soviet Union led the team scoring after completion of the compulsories with 197.371 points. The United States, with what appears to be its best team since the Mary Lou Retton-led Olympic squad of 1984, is second going into today’s optionals with 196.208.

Romania and China also remain in the medal chase. Romania, the only country to beat the Soviets in the World Championships in the last decade, was third with 195.795, with China fourth with 195.270.

Competition in the men’s optionals began Monday night, but the top six teams weren’t scheduled until Tuesday night. The Soviet Union held a comfortable lead after compulsories, with the U.S. in fifth and without its top athlete, Lance Ringnald, who separated his right shoulder Sunday and had to withdraw from the championships.

Monday night was devoted to competition involving countries without full teams and to those full teams that scored lowest in the compulsories.

Boguinskaia’s performance, which included scores of 9.950 on the uneven bars and floor exercise and a 9.937 on the beam, took much of the shine from the impressive effort of 14-year-old American Shannon Miller.

Miller, from Edmond, Okla., gave it her best shot, but couldn’t catch the veteran Boguinskaia, who won four medals in the 1988 Olympics at Seoul and is back to defend the world title she won at Stuttgart, Germany, in 1989.

The 4-foot-6, 69-pound Miller, one of a trio of 14-year-olds on the U.S. team, scored a 9.90 on the vault, a 9.937 on the balance beam, a 9.875 on floor and 9.850 on the uneven bars.

It was good enough to give Miller a tie for second place with Romanian standout Cristina Bontas going into the optionals, in which gymnasts create their own routines, the degree of difficulty increases and the scores run higher. Miller and Bontas both scored 39.562 in the compulsories.

Bo Yang of China was fourth and Henrietta Onodi of Hungary fifth heading into the optionals. Four of the top 10 finishers in compulsories were Soviets.

Miller’s effort bettered teammate Betty Okino’s solid set of routines on Sunday night. Okino was ninth after compulsories, and along with national champion Kim Zmeskal (12th), Michelle Campi (16th), Kerri Strug (22nd) and Hilary Grivich (28th), kept the U.S. on the Soviets’ heels.

American coach Bela Karolyi, who prior to the start of the competition labeled the Soviets “more vulnerable than ever before,” remained in an upset mode.

“I still have the feeling they are not that compact. They are not that sturdy,” Karolyi said. “In the past they swept everything and never finished compulsory competition without leading by three or four points. Now, they aren’t that far away from us. As predicted, there is a tremendous, spectacular fight developing.”

Miller, a relative rookie to international competition, said she wasn’t intimidated by having to perform in the same round with Boguinskaia.

“I didn’t worry about anybody else. I just tried to concentrate on my routines.”

The top 12 teams in both the men’s and women’s competitions after the optionals qualify for next year’s Olympics at Barcelona.