World student games: Odam's Ukrainian lesson

WHAT makes this event is that it brings together an incredible mix. Those for whom the Games is the be all and end all of their athletic careers rub shoulders with those for whom it is merely a stepping stone to greater things, writes Tom Chesshyre from Buffalo, New York.

On Monday at the Niagara Falls Convention Center, Rosina Odam came 16th in the women's all-around individual competition in gymnastics with the Ukrainian double gold-medallist at Barcelona, Tatiana Lisenko, winning the gold in a dazzling display.

In each event Odam had the difficult task of following Lisenko. Odam said: 'I was nervous going into the competition and was trying not to think about what Lisenko was doing. I know I wasn't meant to but I did watch her out of admiration.

'Lisenko was just brilliant. She has so much style and she attacks the work because she knows she can do.'

Britain just missed out on their elusive first medal yesterday when the men's doubles tennis partners, Jeffrey Hunter and Jonathan Haycock, lost 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 in a close quarter-final against Mike Sell and Rob Giyone, of the United States.