WORLD SPORTS SCENE : Romania Still Holds Edge in Gymnastics

The recent World Gymnastics Championships showed that the dominant force among the women continues to be Romania, which won the team gold medal by more than a point over second-place China and by three points over the third-place United States, a huge differential in gymnastics.

The Romanians appeared to have no weaknesses. They hit difficult routines consistently and fielded a team so deep that sometimes their stars were lost performing in the middle of the lineup, instead of at the end. China, though, performed routines that included the most difficult skills, executing them with incredible precision. Romania’s new young talent is 14-year old Alexandra Marinescu. Mo Huilan, 16, starred for China.

The U.S. women were clearly overmatched, but not all the best Americans were there. Injuries kept three of the top gymnasts from competing. In addition, several team members competed with injuries, including Shannon Miller. Given the circumstances, the team did very well, edging out a shaky and tired-looking Russian squad for the bronze.

But the huge point differential shows that while the Americans are deep enough to medal without all their top stars, a significant accomplishment, the stars are clearly needed if the United States is to have a chance for the gold in Atlanta.

Interestingly, national champion Dominique Moceanu finished fifth in the all-around, the highest of the Americans. At the world championships in 1991, Tatiana Gutsu also finished fifth before winning the gold medal the next year at the 1992 Olympics.

*

U.S. water polo’s 24-page, full-color 1996 calendar barely gave a nod to the women’s national team, which finished sixth this month at the FINA World Cup in Sydney, Australia. The women were relegated to the last page with one unbecoming shot of team members in full-length robes standing by a pool.

The other women featured in the calendar were super models in skintight bathing suits. Those pictures, which included Olympic swimmer Dara Torres-Gowen, were borrowed from Sports Illustrated’s 1994 swimsuit issue that featured male water polo players.

Kevin Messenger, U.S. water polo spokesman, said women players were not featured more prominently because it was a promotion for the Summer Olympics paid for by Games sponsor Kodak. Women’s water polo hopes to be sanctioned by the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.

But that rationale raises the question--which Olympic sport do the swimsuit models represent?

*

Although the cycling season all but ended after last month’s world championships in Colombia, some of the best U.S. teams are competing in the inaugural Kent Tour of China, Asia’s first major cycling event. The seven-day race through four of China’s five largest cities, began Thursday and will end Sunday in Beijing. It was developed by the organizers of the Tour DuPont.

*

Denise Parker of South Jordan, Utah has been considered the future of U.S. women archers since she emerged as a world-class competitor eight years ago at age 13. But the two-time Olympian, who set two Pan American Games records this year, failed to qualify for the eight-member women’s training team for the 1996 Summer Olympics that was selected in a recent competition at Long Beach. She finished ninth.

This is a transition period in general for U.S. archery. Entering a continental qualifying tournament this week at Mexico City, U.S. women have earned only one of three berths available to them in the Olympics. U.S. men qualified for their three berths, but none may go to veterans such as Jay Barrs, Rick McKinney and Ed Eliason. The first three finishers at Long Beach, Vic Wunderle, Rod White and Justin Huish, were under 20.

World Scene Notes

Greeks, furious when Atlanta was chosen over Athens to organize next summer’s Centennial Olympics, have moved on. In a recent ceremony at the ruins of the Temple of Hera, Olympia, the site of the ancient Olympics, and Atlanta became sister cities. Olympia Mayor Giorgos Deves said citizens there were justified in their bitterness toward Atlanta and the IOC but had gotten over it. They are, however, still drinking Pepsi because they believe Coca-Cola bought the Games for Atlanta. . . . The U.S. national water polo team will hold an exhibition at 3:30 p.m. Friday at Harvard Westlake Academy in North Hollywood before Harvard high plays host to Loyola. . . . IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch denies he threatened to remove baseball from the Olympics if professionals are not allowed to play in 2000 at Sydney, Australia, although he preferred to have them. Every vote so far has been against it, but another vote of the International Baseball Federation will take place after the 1996 Olympics. Since the Olympics are held during the regular baseball season, the thinking is that players representing the United States could be from minor league teams.

Glenn McCormick, coach of the U.S. diving team in the 1956 Summer Olympics, died recently at age 69. He is the father of Kelly McCormick Robertson, who won a silver medal in 1984 and a bronze in 1988 in springboard diving, and the former husband of Pat McCormick, who won springboard and platform gold medals in 1952 and ’56. . . . Criticism has been directed toward Princess Anne and her former British colleague on the IOC, Dame Mary Glen Haig, because they did not politic harder on behalf of Manchester, England’s bid for the 2000 Summer Olympics. “It’s all very well Britain playing cricket [fairly], but if no one else is playing by the rules, it all seems rather pointless,” said Michael Fabricant, a Conservative member of Parliament. “I am not sure if the British stiff upper lip is going to be that effective.”

The U.S. women’s volleyball team, winner of last month’s World Grand Prix, for a change will be the hunted instead of the hunters in the World Cup that begins this week in Japan. . . . Ukrainian pole vaulter extraordinaire Sergei Bubka is opening a travel agency in Stockholm, Sweden.

Times staff writers Elliott Almond and Randy Harvey contributed to this story.