NADIA'S SCORE CUT BACK, AND RUSSIAN WINS GOLD
Author: Associated Press
Date: Friday, July 25, 1980
Page: ?????
Section: SPORTS

Nadia Comaneci had a last chance to win a gymnastics gold medal at the Moscow Olympics today - after an angry uproar over her score in the all-around finals.

The 18-year-old Romanian star of the 1976 Montreal Olympics with three golds failed to defend her Olympic all-around title yesterday, finishing in a second-place tie with East Germany's Maxi Gnauck.

Yelena Davydova, an 18-year-old Russian in her first major international tournament, won the gold medal.

But scores were posted more than half an hour late and only after the jury overruled the Romanian head judge's attempt to raise Comaneci's score of 9.85 in the balance beam, her last event, to 9.90 or higher.

The Romanian needed 9.90 for undisputed silver medal and 9.95 to overtake Davydova for the gold.

An all East-bloc team of four referees from Poland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and the Soviet Union awarded Comaneci the lower mark for a performance flawed by a momentary waver on the 4-inch-wide beam in a somersault combination.

It was Comaneci's second straight silver medal in Moscow. She also won a team silver Wednesday when Romania failed to repeat its upset of the Soviet Union at the 1979 World Championships in Fort Worth, Texas.

Comaneci's defeat in the Olympic all-around was a blow to her pride, but the dispute over her score - complete with angry gesturing by coaches and referees and chants from the crowd at Lenin Sport Palace - was unprecedented in Olympic gymnastics.

The uproar overshadowed Comaneci's strong performance in the all-around final, including a mark of 10 in the uneven bars, the only perfect score of the night.

Davydova finished the three-day program with 79.150 points, and Comaneci and Gnauck tied with 79.075 each.

Today and tonight, gold medals in four apparatus events were to be contested, with Comaneci a strong threat in both the uneven bars and the beam - events she won at Montreal four years ago.

Men's gymnastic history was made Thursday when Alexander Dityatin of the Soviet Union scored the first perfect 10 in Olympic competition enroute to a gold medal in the men's all-around.

Dityatin scored a perfect 10 in the vault, racking up 118.650 for the Olympic title to go with the world all-around crown he won last December.

Teammate Nikolai Andrianov, hero of the Montreal Games with four gold medals, finished second with 118.225 and Stoyan Delchev of Bulgaria got the bronze with 118.00.

Dityatin's perfect mark touched off a burst of 10s, and five were awarded.

Zoltan Amgyar of Hungary, defending world champion in the side horse, scored a perfect mark in his speciality, and Russia's Alexander Tkachov achieved perfection on the horizontal bars. Delchev got a 10 in the rings on his final apparatus to prevent a Soviet sweep.

Six men's apparatus gold medals were to be contested today.