Min's Lausanne Diary

Photographs are copyright of Min Ying. Please do not use them without writing to me first.

Day Three. 3rd September 1997

Men's Team Qualifications.The Chinese team basically swept everyone aside in its wake. They were way ahead of everyone else. It became more fun following the other teams to see which one comes 2nd, 3rd, etc.

Got the autographs of almost the whole Russian women's team! And like the case with the Romanians on Day Zero, I had not actively sought them out! Michelle (fellow IG Tour friend) and I were coming into the seating area and there they were sitting in a row in casual wear. Somehow I copped out of it and asked Michelle to get their signatures for me. And she did! All five signed!It was a real coup because KHORKINA refused to sign anymore later on as more and more people crowded up to where they were sitting on the grey seats.



Dan BURINCA injured his shoulder. Was wandering in the Village when I saw someone ask for his autograph and inquired why he (Burinca) was not preparing for the men's competition. Overheard BURINCA answering he "broke" his shoulder. Ahh, real shame. The Romanian men's team really missed him.

Sergei Kharkov totally delighted with Germany's placing in the Men's Qualifications
Germany pipped USA and knocked them down one spot in the rankings in sub-division 6. You should have seen how delighted the Germans (actually, half the team was made up of ex-Soviets!) were when the final scores where posted. Charkov was literally rolling on the floor in glee just beneath our front row seats (see photo above). And the US men were surprisingly good I conceded.


Naoya Tsukahara

The bus taking the Japanese team back to their hotel was parked next to us and they were a jolly bunch indeed. Very happy with their men's performance. Wow, the noise a small bunch of Japanese supporters waving huge flags could make! The team were terribly obliging with the autographs as well (witness the photo above of Tshukahara happily getting up from his seat to come to the bus door to sign for fans). I was watching them when I noticed Risa SUGAWARA sitting by the window. I walked up to the bus and lifted up the huge (8R I think) photo with her shaking the hand of Julia KOROSTILEVA. She looked surprised and beamed in recognition. I grinned and walked back to under the tree then reconsidered, walked back to the bus and asked her to sign the photo. And that she did most graciously. Don't you love all these close encounters? Same darn language problems though, wished I could speako the lingo.

Back to DAY TWO

Onwards to DAY FOUR