By Sportswriter Pan Yi

    ATHENS, Aug. 24 (Xinhuanet) -- Romania, a traditional power in women's gymnastics, shone brilliantly in Athens as they swept four of six gold medals up for grabs in women's competition.

    Romania finished first on women's team, vault, beam and floor finals. The other two golds went to American Carly Patterson on women's individual all-around and French lady Emilie Lepennec on uneven bars.

    The 17-year-old genius Catalina Ponor, triple champion on women's team, beam and floor in the 2004 European championships repeated her golden hat-trick in Athens.

    The charming girl is poised to replace Russian Svetlana Khorkina as the queen of gymnastics.

    Khorkina, 25, the triple European and world champions on individual all-around and twice Olympic gold medalist on her favorite event uneven bars in Atlanta and Sydney, will definitely retire after the Athens Olympics in which she grabbed a sliver on individual all-around and a bronze on team.

    Ponor, a specialist on beam and floor, came from Constantsa, a Black Sea resort which also produced 2000 Olympic all-around champion Simona Amanar and Ponor's teammate Daniela Sofronie.

    Ponor's beauty is different from that of "icy beauty" Khorkina and she is set to fill the vacancy left by the Russian.

    Romania's triumph in Athens is mainly attributed to the comprehensive training system which has produced potential elites as many as possible.

    "Every year, I see newcomers in my team, and they all have great potentials," said Romanian team leader Bellu Octavian.

    The United States, who swept five gold medals at the 2003 Anaheim worlds, took two golds on the men's and women's individualall-around competitions and two silvers on the team finals.

    The Americans also got silver medals on women' beam, uneven bars, vault and men's high bar, and a bronze on woman's uneven bars.

    Although the Americans failed to clinch a single gold on apparatus finals, they showed their great strength on all apparatus. Paul Hamm, 22, and Carly Patterson, 16, the men's and women's all-arounders here, will lead the U.S. team to more victories in next year's worlds.

    "We have a program on the gymnastics development and we were requested to participate in the world-level competitions as many as possible to accumulate experience," Paul Hamm said after being crowned men's all-rounder.

    China, who also swept five golds at the 2003 Anaheim worlds, had been the top favorites on many events in Athens. Head coach Huang Yubin once said the U.S. squad was nothing if they were awayfrom home and that Japan was only good at high bar.

    The Chinese team made a big mistake to look down upon their opponents. Until the end of the podium training and the qualification, the Chinese were shocked by the brilliant performances of the United States, Romania and Japan.

    "We cannot say that the U.S. team can only create miracles on their homeland. They have real power," Xiao Guanglai, a Chinese technical official in the International Gymnastics Federations, said before the men's team final.

    Gao Jian also admitted before the final, "We must show our bestform in the final, otherwise there is no chance for the team title."

    As the Chinese rising star Teng Haibin made three big mistakes on floor, parallel bars and high bar respectively, China finished fifth in the men's team final, the worst Olympic result since 1984.

    Japan edged in-form Unite States on high bar to take the men's team title, back on top after 28 years.

    Then, China's bet were all on the men's vault and parallel bars,the two strong events for Li Xiaopeng, twice Olympic champion on team and parallel bars in Sydney and triple gold medalist on team,vault and parallel bars at the Anaheim worlds.

    However, the dream was smashed as Li fell from the vault and was beaten to the third place by Ukrainian Valeri Goncharov and Japanese Hiroyuki Tomita on parallel bars.

    Teng, 19, who made up his errors in the team's final on men's pommel horse on Sunday, grabbed the gold from the hands of Romanian pommel king Daniel Urzica. The lucky gold saved the face of the Chinese team, which used to be called "dream" team.

    Russia, which used to be a leader of gymnastics, collapsed without any gold. The Russian men's team led by Alexei Nemov, 28, who took two golds each in Atlanta and in Sydney, left Athens in empty hands.

    The Russian women's team led by Khorkina, 25, got one silver and two bronze medals here.

    The use of veteran gymnasts itself indicated Russia was going down.

    When the 10-day competition was over, Romania came first overall with four golds, three silvers and three bronzes, followedby the United States with 2-6-1, Japan 1-1-2 and China 1-0-2 Enditem