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Worlds are just warm-up for 2008, says China
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-11-15 11:01
Romanian gymnastics has been marred by problems since the women's team won at
the 2004 Olympics.
Catalina
Ponor | The team was disbanded in August after
Ponor and team mate Floarea Leonida went to a Bucharest nightclub without the
permission of their coaches Octavian Belu and Mariana Bitang, who resigned a
couple of days later.
Ponor returned home to the city of Constanta by the Black Sea, to work with
her former coach Matei Stanei, a month-and-a-half ago.
"I'm still the best in the world, I want the gold at balance beam, of course,
and a medal at floor," Ponor told Reuters ahead of the individual world
championships which open next Monday.
"I won't ever go to a major competition unless I think I'll get gold, and
that's how I'm going to Melbourne."
Ponor, who has lost 2.5 kgs in the past two months but still has to take off
one kg, won the balance beam at recent World Cup events in Stuttgart and
Maribor, boosting her hopes for the worlds.
"Nobody and nothing can influence me when I get into the competition hall,"
Ponor said. "It's true that some Chinese are good, (the world floor champion
Brazilian Daiane) Dos Santos is also good, but it doesn't matter."
"My morale is okay now. I can't say that I'm better than (at the Olympics) in
Athens, but I feel good," she said. "I feel perfect with my new weight."
MORE FREEDOM
Ponor refused to discuss the time spent in the Olympic Centre of Deva, in
Transylvania, where several gymnasts accused Belu and Bitang of imposing "iron
discipline" in and out of the training hall.
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