The Orlando Sentinel
March 5, 1994
p. B1
A pulled stomach muscle led to her pulling out of the all-around competition Friday night at Orlando Arena, but not before she qualified for the U.S. World Championship Team.
As defending world champion, Miller was awarded a berth by the elite coaches committee pending her readiness at this meet. She needed a top-10 all-around or top-six individual event finish.
And she got that, finishing fifth in the vault (9.625 points) before retiring. But not without a protest, after judges assessed a .3 of a point deduction for completing a vault routine different than the code flashed on the indicator by her coaches.
The judges listened to Miller's coach, Steve Nunno, protest. Then they conceded they allowed Romanian Simona Amanar to change her code between her two vaults, and they essentially reduced the deduction to .15, moving Miller from a tie for ninth to fifth.
''Her stomach was bothering her a little, and we felt it best for her to stop,'' Nunno said, pointing to the World Championships six weeks away (April 19-24 in Brisbane, Australia) and priorities for the long haul leading to the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
Miller's muscle-pull took the spotlight away from a phenomenal performance by U.S. Olympians Dominique Dawes and John Roethlisberger, who won the qualifying for today's all-around competition final and $5,000 in prize money. Dawes won three of the four routines, and Roethlisberger finished ahead of world champion Vitaly Scherbo of Belarus.
''I wouldn't say this was my best performance because I made a mistake on bars,'' Dawes said, ''but my beam, yes, that was one of my best.''
Roethlisberger conceded that Scherbo was not at his best. ''I would like to say that if he hit his I still would win, but I can't say that. I can say I was consistent today and he wasn't, and yes, that does make me happy.''
The 5,111 fans saved their appreciation for Dawes, who recorded 9.900 on beam in her final rotation to surpass Elena Piskun of Belarus for the No. 1 all-around (38.825 to 38.800), and for Roethlisberger, who is the hottest U.S. men's gymnast of this quadrennium.
Miller performed well in the vault and would have recorded the top score, if not for the code error.
''They have come out with a new vaulting chart I have never seen,'' Nunno said. ''There is too much ambiguous wording on the chart. Here I am fighting for one of my athlete's scores. It's a difficult situation for a coach to be in.''
Miller was more concerned about the muscle injured in training last Monday.
''It bothered me a little, but not much on the vault,'' Miller said. ''It hurts much more on bars. I'm icing the muscle and heating it, but I can't start therapy until I get home.''