Top Athletes Compete in Championships

The 2008 Pacific Rim Championships kicked off this year in San Jose, CA with top
athletes from 14 Pacific Rim countries
competing for placement in Men’s and Women’s Artistic and Rhythmic Gymnastics,
and Trampoline. Spirits and expectations were running high as the last team
competition before the summer Olympic Games in Beijing got underway the afternoon of March
28.

USA Veterans Nastia Liukin and Paul Hamm pulled out decisive
wins in the individual event finals in spite of some significant challenges
along the way. Even after missing a Gienger during warm-ups for her famously
difficult bars routine and stumbling out of bounds on her 3rd pass of the floor
exercises, Liukin came back to take top honors on the Balance Beam and earn the
Women’s all-around title.

High Scores for US Trampolinists

Fans of the Trampoline events gathered at the San Jose
McEnery Convention Center to watch the heated competition between athletes from
Russia, Japan, Australia, Canada, Mexico and the US, as the top 2 senior and
junior trampolinists from each country showcased their talents and fought for a
seed in the upcoming Beijing Olympics.

US
Women’s senior Trampolinist Brittany Dirks posted a score of 63.30 to place 5th
and advance to the finals along with junior Nani Vercruyssen, who earned a
first place score of 60.10 to qualify for final events participation. In the
Men’s division, the US
team finished in second place with a combined score of 195.600. Chris Estrada
of Lafayette, La. helped lead his federation to the silver
medal with a score of 69.50 in the preliminary round.

Fierce Competition in Trampoline Finals

Although athletes competed in reverse order of their
preliminary rankings, the prelim Trampoline rounds proved to be prophetic, with
each of the top 3 spots remaining unchanged at the conclusion of the
individuals competition.

Russian Olympic Champion Irina Karavaeva defended her title
and edged out Canada’s Karen Cockburn with a total score of 38.50 in the senior
Women’s competition, while senior Tetsuya Sotomura of Japan won his first gold
medal at a major international event in the senior division by finishing with a
score of 41.40 -- just .10 points over Russian Wroclaw World Cup winner Dimitri
Ushakov.