ANAHEIM, Calif. — Defending world champion Belarus and Russia lost gymnasts to Achilles' tendon injuries at the World Gymnastics Championships on Saturday, putting both team's medal hopes in question.
Evgeni Krylov fell on his opening tumbling pass on the floor, Russia's first event. Krylov couldn't put any weight on his left foot and had to crawl off the floor.
Trainers were still working on him at the side of the floor a half-hour after the incident, and he missed Russia's second and third rotation. He'll be evaluated Sunday.
Two rotations later, Belarus saw almost the same thing happen. Dmitri Kasparovich was doing his final tumbling pass when his left foot — already heavily taped — appeared to slip out from beneath him. He pitched forward, almost scraping his face on his floor. He immediately grabbed his left ankle and sat on the edge of the podium.
He was carried out of the arena, as teammate Ivan Ivankov buried his head in his arms at the side of the floor. Kasparovich also will be evaluated Sunday.
While neither athlete was their team's strongest gymnast, the injuries are a huge blow. Athletes can't be replaced once the competition starts, taking away any strategy the teams hoped to use with their lineups and leaving them no room for mistakes.
There are six gymnasts on each team, and five compete on each apparatus in the preliminaries with the top four scores counting. Russia and Belarus must now compete with four gymnasts per apparatus, counting all of the scores.
The top eight teams advance to Tuesday's finals, and the top 12 secure a spot in next year's Athens Olympics. Japan had a comfortable lead through the first two sessions. The Japanese had 227.046 points, more than two points ahead of Romania. Canada was third, six points back, and Germany was fourth.