Evgeniya Kanaeva of Russia performs with ribbon during the individual all-round final at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games rhythmic gymnastics event in Beijing, China, Aug. 23, 2008. Evgeniya Kanaeva won the gold medal of the event.(Xinhua Photo/Cheng Min) Photo Gallery>>>

Evgeniya Kanaeva of Russia competes during the individual all-round final at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games rhythmic gymnastics event in Beijing, China, Aug. 23, 2008. Evgeniya Kanaeva won the gold medal of the event. (Xinhua/Cheng Min) Photo Gallery>>>

    BEIJING, Aug. 23 (Xinhua) -- Evgeniya Kanaeva highlighted Russia's dominance in rhythmic gymnastics by taking the individual all-around gold medal at the Beijing Olympics by an impressive 3.575-point margin on Saturday.

    The gold medal was the 18-year-old's first Olympic title, and the third Olympic rhythmic individual gold for powerhouse Russia in a row.

    The retirement of Athens all-around gold and silver medallist from Russia, Alina Kavaeva and Irina Tchachina, opened the way for their compatriots Kanaeva and Olga Kapranova, and for 2004 bronze medallist Anna Bessonova of Ukraine.

    Saturday's rhythmic individual all-around final saw a rivalry among the three and a newcomer, Inna Zhukova from Belarus.

    But Kanaeva stood out just too easily, leading all the way through all the four routines of rope, hoop, clubs and ribbon.

    The difficulty value of all her four routines exceeded the 9.0 barrier, and she matched her high difficulty with high-standard execution, mesmerizing fans with dazzling swings, circles, tosses, catches and spirals, among other daredevil tricks.

    The 2008 European all-around champion who ranked first in qualifications, claimed the title with the highest scores in all her four routines, and a winning combination of 75.500 points.

    "I am so happy for myself, for my coach and viewers in the stadium," she said. "I did my best in the competition. I only wanted to follow what my coach told me to do."

    She said she was so focused on her performance and did not even notice she was first or not. "I only realized I won the gold medal when I saw the mark on the screen."

    Inna Zhukova, fourth in qualifications, performed consistently on the four routines and finished second with 71.925.

    "It's a pity for me not to get the gold medal, but I'm not too sad to get the silver medal," she said.

    "In recent years I have attended a lot of competitions and the best result for me has been fourth place. It's beyond my expectation to get the silver medal," said Zhukova.

    Bessonova, the 2007 world all-around champion, was in fifth place after two apparatus, but dynamic routines with clubs and ribbon in the second half of the final pulled her into third, in 71.850 points.

    But the Ukrainian was not so happy as she did not see a satisfactory score for her third routine, with clubs, a routine seemingly superb to her and the audience.

    "I was in tears after my third rotation because I felt it's a pity that I did not get high score in this rotation. But I thought I still had a last routine to make up for it," she said.

    Kapranova, the 2005 world champion who was also a hot favourite for the title, lost her chance after she missed her clubs twice in her third routine and only scored 16.95, the third lowest in this rotation.

    She recovered in the final rotation by performing the third highest-scoring ribbon routine of the day. She was fourth.

    The top ten gymnasts out of a total of 24 in the qualifications competed in the final.

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