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The host nation won three more gold medals Thursday at the Central American Games in Puerto Rico, where a scoring scandal emerged over the still rings results.  Regulo Carmona (Venezuela) 2008 Olympian Luis Rivera began the Puerto Rican men's sweep of Thursday's finals with victories on floor exercise and pommel horse. During the still rings final, however, the Puerto Rican crowd erupted in boos after last-up Regulo Carmona (Venezuela) earned a top-scoring 14.825 despite stumbling back on his dismount. The audience booed and whistled for 10 minutes before Carmona's score was lowered to 14.775, leaving him tied with Jorge Hugo Giraldo (Colombia). Additionally, the score of Puerto Rico's Tommy Ramos reportedly was raised from 14.325 to 14.775, resulting in a three-way tie and a third gold for the host nation. Puerto Rican judge Javier Colon, the event's technical director, said he decided to launch the video inquiry "after watching the audience reaction" at the hall in Hormigueros. "We could not ignore the fact that Carmona, while a great athlete, had reached an impossible score for his execution, because he committed several errors on his dismount," Colon said. The audience did not understand that Carmona's original score reflected his high difficulty score, Venezuelan women's coach Nilson Medeiros said. Carmona's D-Score was 6.6, compared with 6.2 for Ramos and 6.1 for Giraldo. "In each routine, difficulty and combining elements brings a higher value," the Brazilian-born coach said. "The public has no way of knowing that." Colon said no harm was done by changing the scores. "We feel nobody was hurt by this, and determined that this was the best thing to do after the Venezuelan, Dominican and Colombian judges did not suitably deduct from Carmona, a world-class athlete who nevertheless erred during the final," her said. Carmona, the 2004 World Cup Final rings champion, said the judges bowed to the crowd's desires. "There can be public pressure to do these things," the 30-year-old gymnast said. "It's obvious that the people who came to watch us do not know a lot about gymnastics. My performance during the rings routine [prior to the dismount] was flawless... Luckily I took the gold anyway." In the women's competition, stars Elsa Garcia (Mexico) and Jessica Lopez (Venezuela) each won a title. Garcia and teammate Alexa Moreno went 1-2 on vault for Mexico with Lopez in third. Lopez took the gold on uneven bars, with Colombian Olympian Nathalia Sanchez second and Guatemala's Monica Yool in third. Yool's bronze was the first gymnastics medal for Guatemala in Hormigueros, where Colombia, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Venezuela have divided the awards. "I think that over the past four years, the technical quality of the gymnasts in this region has improved," Garcia said. Competition in Hormigueros concludes Friday with the remaining events. "Tomorrow we start from zero, so we must continue doing our best to finish well," said Lopez, who won the all-around title Wednesday. External Link: Official Event Website XXI Central American and Caribbean Games
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Cheating So 8.225 is an "impossible" execution score yet a 8.175 is perfectly fine? Oh and we'll also "adjust" the score from the Puerto Rican guy that coincidentally ties him for the title. The FIG needs to investigate this because it's outright results fixing. And isn't Javier Colon the head coach of Puerto Rico? |
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