Khorkina will try for history in bars final

Svetlana Khorkina had to settle for silver in the all-round gymnastics but she can still make history in the apparatus finals.

Svetlana Khorkina had to settle for silver in the all-round gymnastics but she can still make history in the Olympic apparatus finals.

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The Russian diva is trying to become the first gymnast in history to win three consecutive Olympic titles on the same apparatus.

Khorkina's signature apparatus is the asymmetric bars. She won the Olympic title at the 1996 and 2000 Games, her success in Sydney going some way to making up for her devastation at unexpectedly losing the all-around title.

The bars contest at the Olympic Indoor Hall will come on Sunday, the first day of event finals, along with women's vault and men's floor exercise, pommel horse and rings.

On Monday fans will see the men's vault, parallel bars and horizontal bar as well as the women's beam and floor exercise.

Event finals are typically the most exciting part of gymnastics meetings, featuring competitors who excel at one or two events and who take risks to impress the judges.

The all-round competitions, won in Athens by two Americans for the first time - Paul Hamm and Carly Patterson - reward the steadiest gymnast.

Khorkina will have stiff competition in the bars final, with the biggest threats likely to come from American Courtney Kupets, the 2002 world bars champion, and France's Emilie Lepennec, who does an unusually difficult skill.

Kupets will also compete in the beam final, despite a hamstring injury which causes sharp pains when she does her routine.

Russian Elena Zamolodchikova will defend her title in the vault, where she will face American Annia Hatch and Romanian Monica Rosu.

On the men's side, Romanian Marius Urzica will try to defend his pommel horse title. His strongest competitors appear to be China's Huang Xu and Teng Haibin and Spain's Victor Cano, who has come back from an injury he suffered earlier this year.

On rings the obvious favourite is Greece's Dimosthenis Tambakos. He will face veteran champions Jordan Jovtchev of Bulgaria and Italy's Yuri Chechi, who won the 1996 Olympic title.