Alexander Jeltkov flying high during a release move on High Bar earlier this year at the Commonwealth Games. - Grace Chu Photography, 2002

On the strength of a dynamic high bar routine to end the meet, Jeltkov came from behind to snare the all around gold. He was third third entering the final rotation and took the all around crown scoring a 9.340 on his best event the high bar to finish with 106.850 points. He also won the high bar gold and bronze on floor and parallel bars. "This was one my best competitions," said Jeltkov, a World Cup winner on high bar last weekend in Scotland.

Shewfelt, who earned three World Cup medals including a gold at the two European World Cup stops last month, was once again brilliant on his two key events with a 9.750 on floor and 9.800 on vault for gold medals. "I felt very strong and very fast on vault and even though I didn't completely stick the landing it was one of my best for sure," said Shewfelt, 20, a double gold medallist at the Commonwealth Games.

There was also a strong performance by David Kikuchi of Halifax. He was the leader after the first day and most of the second day's competition, and was second all around at 106.737. He earned three more silver with runner-up finishes on pommel horse, rings and parallel bars. Grant Golding of Calgary was third at 105.083 and added a bronze on pommel horse.

Shewfelt (floor and vault), Jeltkov (high bar, floor parallel bars) and Kikuchi (pommel horse, rings, and parallel bars) were confirmed for the team for the world individual apparatus championships November 18-24 in Debrecen, Hungary. One to three more gymnasts may be added to the team.

DID YOU KNOW? The fastest growing sports in North America are artificial wall climbing, wakeboarding, kayaking, and snowboarding. - SGMA International's Outdoor Recreation in America (2002 edition).

Jonathon Power succumbs to John White of Scotland in the quarterfinals of the Qatar Open

Third-seed David Palmer of Australia survived a tough battle with Frenchman Thierry Lincou with a 15-10, 15-13, 10-15, 15-10 in 72 minutes. In the top half of the draw, England's top seed Peter Nicol defeated Anthony Ricketts, the ninth seed from Australia, 15-12, 15-12, 15-13. Power had breezed through his two first matches and was favored to meet Nicol in the final. He'll now look to rebound on home turf at the YMG Classic slated for November 10-15 in Toronto.

GILL WINS BRONZE AT PROFESSIONAL JUDO TOURNAMENT

MOSCOW (CSN) - Olympic silver medallist Nicolas Gill of Montreal won the bronze medal in the men's 100 kilograms this weekend at the Grand Prix judo competition. The competition, which was inaugurated last year, is reserved for the top-eight judokas in the world for each category.

Elco Van Der Gesst of the Netherlands earned the gold medal defeating Yuri Stepkin of Russia in the final. Gill and Mike Nieuwenhuis of the Netherlands were each awarded bronze after losing their semifinals.

Gill opened the tournament with a victory over world championship bronze medallist Askhat Zhitkeyer of Kazakhstan scoring a bout-ending Ippon at the 40 second mark. In his semifinal, he lost to Van Der Geest who counter attacked the Canadian for an Ippon at the two minute mark of the five-minute bout.

At the European club championships two weeks ago, Gill injured his shoulder which cut into some precious training time in preparation for the Grand Prix.

Jasey Jay Anderson achieves a top 16 finish at 2nd stop on World Cup snowboarding circuit.

It was Bozzetto's sixth win over the past two seasons. Harald Walder beat Felix Stadler in an all Austrian match-up for the bronze. Anderson, the defending overall World Cup champion, cracked the top-16 in the preliminaries to reach the playoff round and faced Walder in his round of 16 match-up. In the playoff round, the snowboarders race twice against each other with the total best time advancing.

Walder won the first run by 3/10ths of a second. But in the second run, Anderson mistimed his start and barged into the gates as they opened and fell in spectacular fashion. He quickly got up but was unable to catch the Austrian who was two gates ahead once Anderson started down the hill.

"I needed to win that race to advance and a good start was crucial," said Anderson. "The gates are tricky and you have to be careful. I made a mistake. It's too bad because I had a great race plan. In the end, I had three strong runs today. It's promising for the rest of the season." Coincidentally a new start system has been approved for the next World Cup. "There'll be new electronic equipment for the start," said Canadian national team coach Christian Hrab of Whistler, B.C. "So Jasey-Jay is the last victim of the old system."