Italy wins European Women's Gymnastic Championships
VOLOS, Greece -- Vanessa Ferrari's stellar performance on the uneven bars helped lift Italy to gold at the Women's European Gymnastic Championships on Saturday.
Italy finished with 175.225 points, edging defending champion Romania with 175.125. Ferrari scored 15.600 on the uneven bars.
Italy won gold with the highest overall tournament score despite coming in second in all four apparatus events. Romania's Sandra Izbasa won the vault (14.825) and the floor exercise (15.5).
Ferrari earned the two highest scores of the day, with another 15.600 on the beam, well ahead of the second-best score of 15.175 by triple Olympic gold medalist Catalina Ponor of Romania. The 18-year-old Ponor plans to retire after this competition.
Italy's surprise victory was a major blow to Romania, which had dominated international competition for the past 10 years and led Saturday until the final minutes.
Russia was third, followed by Spain, Ukraine and France. Britain was seventh ahead of the last-placed Netherlands, which lost Lichelle Wong when she fell off the uneven bars.
The women's individual finals are Sunday.
The men's European Championships begin Thursday.
Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press
This story is from ESPN.com's automated news wire. Wire index
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