And of course the cheap thrill of the day was getting a peck on the cheek by a pleasantly surprised Anastasya DZYUNDZYAK when I passed the 'presents' over. I guess the Uzbeks were rather surprised anyone took notice of them in the first place. Anyway, that made my day and I was grinning like an idiot for the next few hours.

What went on in the arena? Women's team was not too exciting. The Ukrainians did really well. With Lilya injured, every score counted and every one of the four girls pulled off their routines with aplomb. Their FX was beautiful. The US girls bombed. KHORKINA has the highest score. Russian girls were crying when they rushed out to the buses after the Team Finals. Only Khorkina stopped, smiled and signed one autograph. Apparently, she was saying no to all the autograph seekers and said no to the little boy when she stopped, second thoughts, and turned back to sign his stuff. That was rather nice.

The men's competition, on the other hand was "awesome" to use a friend's description. Russia totally bombed out at the High Bar (their second rotation). BONDERENKO hit himself very badly on the ribs during a bad routine. Their Floor, Pommel Horse and Rings were all very much so-so. Someone commented that the Russians do not seem to have read the new code of points for their P-Bars. They were in 6th position out of the 6th finalists tonight. But they redeemed themselves at the Vault, their final apparatus and bounced back to bronze position.

Wow, these tiny Belarussian girls sure can be loud and fun! I think they were TARASEVICH, SAVKO, VITIUKOVA and JARGANOVA. The four of them followed their men's team around the arena and yelled their hearts out, "BEL-LAR-RUS!!! BEL-LAR-RUS!!!" They yelled above the American supporters, they yelled so well that bemused folks turned round to take their photos.