Tears of defeat for Americans

GYMNASTICS

The world champion, Lilia Podkopayeva, extended her reign at the top of her sport when she won the women's combined gold medal on Thursday.

The 17-year-old Ukrainian soared from third place to the gold with a near-flawless 9.887 floor exercise. "I'm very happy that the floor exercise was my final one and I could show all my potential," Podkopayeva said. Gina Gogean took the silver, 0.180 of a point behind Podkopayeva's winning total of 39.255; her fellow Romanians Simona Amanar and Lavinia Milosovici, the 1992 Olympic bronze medallist, tied for third on 39.067.

Mo Huilan, of China, shared the lead going into the last rotation, but stumbled coming out of a front somersault in mid-routine and toppled from medals contention into fifth place. Russia's Dina Kochetkova entered the last rotation tied for the lead with Mo, but lost her chance with two poor landings from the vault.

Two Americans, Domnique Dawes and Shannon Miller, the winner of five medals at the Barcelona Games, stumbled out of contention on their floor exercises and left the podium in tears. Dawes had led the competition after two rotations but, for her and Miller, the burden of expectation - within President Clinton among the watching crowd - was too great to bear.

In a split second, Miller's dreams were shattered when she stepped out of bounds. Returning to her seat, she crumpled in disappointment and the tears flowed. Dawes leapt exuberantly onto the mat but slipped and fell within seconds, going from first to 20th place.