ATHENS, Aug. 19 (Xinhuanet) -- Triple world and European all-around champion and twice-Olympic champion on the uneven bars, Svetlana Khorkina from Russia is eager to take the women's individual all-around gold at the Athens Olympics, to be decided on Thursday night.

    This Olympic title is the only title missing from her enviable gold collection.

    If she wins, Khorkina could be the first non-teenager to win the gold since the 1968 Olympic Games

    However, the qualification and the team final held here before clearly showed that it would not that easy for the queen to fulfilher dream.

    Khorkina, 25, had some wobbles on the beam and finished fifth in the qualification on Sunday.

    Carly Patterson from the United States, the 2003 world silver medalist and top scorer in the qualification, and Romanians Nicoleta Sofronie, the second in the qualification, and Oana Ban, the third, are in excellent form.

    And the Romanians had already been the gold medalists from the team event here, which definitely encouraged them to go even further.

    Zhang Nan from China, the 2003 world bronze medalist who is also very strong in the all-around, took the sixth place in the qualification but she committed a serious mistake during the team final. She fell down during her floor routine.

    Other gymnasts in contention are Courtney Kupets from the United States, the 2002 world champion on the uneven bars, Anna Pavlova from Russia, the 2002 Junior European champion, and Alina Kozich from Ukraine, the current European champion.

    Since no scores are carried over from the qualification, the competition will start afresh. Therefore, the start value of any routine, and the stability of performance, will be the two most important factors for all the 24 competitors in tonight's final. Enditem