Monday, Aug. 18, 2003 | 8:55 a.m.
ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Tasha Schwikert's bid to become the world's best female is over -- at least for 2003.
Although she posted a team-high score of 9.350 in the vault, Schwikert, a native Las Vegan and 2000 Olympian, failed to top 9.00 in the uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise during qualifying at the World Gymnastics Championships at the Arrowhead Pond Sunday night.
Her score in the uneven bars was 8.912 while she received an 8.875 on the balance beam and an 8.512 in floor exercise, her best event. Schwikert, who finished fifth in the all-around in the 2001 World Championships before missing last year's event with an injury, had major errors on the bars and in floor exercise.
"It wasn't a good night for her at all," said Cassie Rice, Schwikert's coach at Gymkats in Henderson.
"It's sad, but that's competition. Sometimes you are on and other times not."
"Tasha won't be in any finals. She is pretty devastated."
Rice said she sensed Schwikert wasn't on top of her game during the end of training camp in Houston earlier this month.
"She was the most prepared for this competition until we went to camp," Rice said. "After one week at camp, we started to see deterioration."
With most of the teams yet to compete, Schwikert's composite score of 35.649 ranked her eighth after two of the 10 women's qualifying subdivisions but just fourth among her U.S. teammates. The top 24 finishers after tonight's final qualifying rounds advance to Friday's all-around finals, but each team only is allowed two participants.
The U.S.' Chellsie Memmel (37.449) is ranked first in the overall heading into the second round of qualifying while Carly Patterson (36.774) is second and Courtney Kupets (36.624) third.
Each team has one qualifying round, meaning the Americans must wait until the rest of the teams go tonight before seeing where they stand. The top eight teams after qualifying advance to the team finals on Wednesday while the top eight finishers in each event move on to apparatus finals on Saturday and Sunday.
Although Schwikert's 9.350 in the vault was the night's second-best mark, based on the men's scores it won't hold up to get her into the apparatus finals. The lowest score among the men's individual qualifiers in any event was a 9.525.
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