With the completion of the qualification rounds at the 40th
World Gymnastics Championships, team tickets for 2008 Beijing
Olympic Games were allocated to as many as 24 national teams on
Tuesday.
As for the men's teams, team ticket holders are Olympic host
China, who also takes the first place in the qualification round of
the current tournament, followed by Japan, Germany, the United
States, Russia, Romania, Spain, South Korea, France, Italy, Canada
and Belarus.
The first eight of them will also compete in Wednesday's team
final at the current world championships.
Tickets for the women's teams were settled earlier on Sunday
when the girls finished their qualification round.
Twelve women's teams who have brought home the Beijing Olympic
tickets are the United States, China, Romania, Russia, Italy,
Britain, France, Brazil, Ukraine, Germany, Australia and Japan.
Prior to the current tourney, a strong Australian team was
considered to be a definite contender for the team final or might
even finish on podium at the championships.
However, too many mistakes in the qualification prevented them
from reaching a higher position.
Anyway, with a ticket to Beijing in hand, the Australian girls
can compete for the medals next year in China.
As for individual gymnasts from those countries or regions who
have not got tickets to Beijing, they can get so-called "wild card
" allocated by the International Gymnastics Federation according to
the performance they will show before August 2008.
(Xinhua News Agency September 5, 2007)