updated 1:21 a.m. ET Aug. 21, 2004

ATHENS, Greece - No way Anna Dogonadze was losing her concentration — and her medal — at these Olympics.

The German won the women’s trampoline competition Friday, scoring 39.60 points to edge reigning world champion Karen Cockburn and erase the bad memory that was the Sydney Games.

Cockburn, a Canadian who won bronze in Sydney, finished with 39.20 points. Huang Shanshan of China took the bronze.

“It’s been a wonderful event,” Dogonadze said. “I’m very happy, indeed, to have won this medal.”

She certainly couldn’t say the same thing in Sydney.

Not used to air conditioning, Dogonadze got the flu and spent several days in bed before the competition. She was in first place after qualifying, but in the finals, she got too far back on one of her tricks and actually bounced off the mat, landing on the protective cushion behind the trampoline.

Unlike gymnastics, there’s no starting over. Dogonadze finished eighth — last of the finalists.

“I did not concentrate sufficiently on the final routine,” she said Friday. “It was a lack of concentration in Sydney.”

She wouldn’t make the same mistake again in Athens.

Cockburn said she was feeling “a little shaky” in qualifying, so she watered down her routines to guarantee a spot in the finals. Once in the finals, though, she did the most difficult routine of the competition.

But she was still feeling nervous, and wasn’t as accurate with her landings as she normally is. Instead of landing in the center of the canvas, Cockburn found herself on the edges a few times. It’s a minor error, but those are the often the difference between silver and gold.

“I already knew it probably wasn’t going to be enough,” Cockburn said. “I didn’t think I was going to be in first for long.”

Sure enough, Dogonadze put on a dazzling show. Trampoline may walk that fine line between sport-not a sport, a souped-up version of what kids have been doing in their backyards for years to pass the time until the hamburgers were done on the grill.

But the tricks the trampoline athletes do aren’t easy, nor are they for the faint of heart. Try soaring 25 feet in the air with only a springy piece of canvas and the floor to break your fall, and see how easy it is. And the fans sure seem to like it, with a bigger crowd turning out at the Olympic Indoor Hall than was there for the men’s gymnastics preliminaries.

Dogonadze almost looked like a diver as she soared above the mat, doing so many flips and twists it was dizzying to watch. When she finished her routine, she broke into a huge grin and raised her arms in triumph.

“She deserved it,” Cockburn said. “She did a great job.”

While Dogonadze was celebrating her victory, there were others who were feeling just like she did in Sydney. American Jennifer Parilla finished 14th, not even making it out of qualifying after tumbling out of bounds in her second routine.

Defending Olympic gold medalist and three-time world champion Irina Karavaeva of Russia also failed to advance after a fall, finishing 15th.

“My goal was to come, do a good compulsory, do a good optional and leave it in the hands of the judges,” Parilla said. “When you only do eight of 10 routines, you’re not leaving it in the hands of the judges. When I hit the mat, I thought, ‘I ruined my own chances. I only did eight skills.’ And you only get one chance.”

Parilla said she was thrown out of her rhythm when her name was announced earlier than she expected before the second qualifying routine.

“My first skill was too low, and the seven skills after that weren’t of optimal height,” she said.

On the eighth one, a twisting somersault about 15 feet in the air, Parilla got off-center and landed at the very edge off the canvas. She bounced up, but had nowhere to go but onto the cushion behind the trampoline, automatically ending her routine.

Karavaeva was doing a twisting, laid-out somersault when she got out of position and sailed toward the end of the canvas. She hit the edge of the mat and ricocheted back to the other end of the canvas.

MORE FROM TRAMPOLINE

German mother wins trampoline gold

German mother wins trampoline gold Ukraine's Nikitin wins men's trampoline NBCO: Inside the sport   Add Trampoline headlines to your news reader: