GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) β The Romanian women’s team is off to a nightmarish start at the world gymnastics championships.
One of the sport’s longtime powers stumbled through qualifying on Friday. Romania finished with a score 217.220, putting its chances of making the eight-team final next week in serious jeopardy.
The Romanians were forced to compete without stars Catalina Ponor and Anamaria Ocolisan, both injured during training. The group led by Larisa Iordache struggled to hit even one clean routine in the country’s worst performance in decades.
Iordache, expected to challenge two-time defending champion Simone Biles for the all-around title, completed four rotations with a score of 55.698, well off what she would need to become a serious threat to dethrone Biles in the finals.
Oksana Chusovitina of Uzbekistan will likely qualify for the vault finals at age 40 after posting an average of 14.683.
