Chinese run rings around rivals
- Source: Global Times
- [22:52 October 18 2009]
- Comments
China's Yan Mingyong performs his routine during the finals in London on Sunday. Photo: AFP
China's dominance of international gymnastics continued on Sunday when they won three individual gold medals and a silver out of five apparatus finals at the World Championships at London's O2 Arena.
The Chinese grabbed 12 individual medals at last year's Olympics in Beijing and the team proved too strong on the third day's action at an arena that will host gymnastics at the 2012 Games.
However, China's Olympic champion Zou Kai believed that his performance in the floor exercise final was underestimated.
Three-time Olympic champion Zou somersaulted on the floor as the first competitor yesterday, executing a set of movements pretty well with the highest difficulty score of 6.8 points among the eight finalists. Although he was "very satisfied" with his performance, Zou was 0.025 point behind the final winner Marian Dragulescu as the 29-year-old Romanian veteran pleased the judges well to earn 15.700 points. "Maybe the judges prefer the style of Dragulescu and he has big fame," said Zou. "Of course, I need to improve the quality of my movements and pay more attention to the details."
Alexander Shatilov of Israel pocketed the bronze with 15.575 points.
Later, Zhang Hongtao, He Kexin and Yan Mingyong gave few chances to the other finalists as they showed great dominance in their specialities. Zhang lowered the difficulty score of his pommel horse routine to 6.6 points, but amazingly finished in an execution score of 9.6 points, showing great hand speed. He punched into the air with both fists immediately after his landing.
"I just celebrated for doing almost perfectly. I was not thinking about the gold medal," said Zhang after clinching the title with 16.2 points. Hungarian Berki Krisztian and Prashanth Sellathurai of Australia finished second and third respectively. Berki was 0.125 point behind Zhang and Sellathurai received a score of 15.4 points.
Olympic champion He was unparalleled in the uneven bars as she led the squad easily with 16 points, leaving runner-up Koko Tsurumi from Japan 1.125 points behind. Anna Porgaras from Romania and Rebecca Bross of US, the silver medalist in the women's all-around, shared the third position with 14.675 points.
The 17-year-old He, who outclassed a high-quality field in the bars, insisted she and her teammates have not been feeling the pressure to maintain the country's success in the sport following Beijing.
"We have been feeling relaxed," she said. "There is no pressure. There are no team events here so we could focus solely on our own events."
"We have just finished our national championships and physically we are not at our best, so we are just trying our hardest."
Although Olympic champion and world title holder Chen Yibing unexpectedly failed to qualify for the men's rings final, his teammate Yan Mingyong completed his job well to take victory at his first World Championships.
Yan took full advantage, wowing the crowd with stunning control to pip Bulgaria's Iordan Iovtchev – the two-time world champion – to gold even though the Chinese star stumbled forward on landing.
"The landing was not a big mistake. I made just one step forward," Yan said. "I still thought I was going to win."
Agencies
