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Sports / China
Chinese gymnasts meet Waterloo in Stuttgart worlds
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-09-10 11:02
Stuttgart - Chinese gymnasts met their Waterloo on Sunday at the wrap-up
stage of the Stuttgart world gymnastic championships, by ending up with
seizing just one silver medal.
Li Shanshan of China performs on the balance beam to win the?silver
during the women's final at the 40th World Artistic Gymnastics
Championships in Stuttgart September 9, 2007.?[Reuters]
With five gold medals in their pockets, the Chinese team were widely
considered the favorite to three events, namely, men's parallel, women's
floor exercise and balance beam.
However, four out of five participating gymnasts from China made major
errors in their actions.
Parallel bar defending champion Yang Wei, who was exhausted due to
participation in a number of events, made errors at the early stage,
dropping to the sixth place with 15.900 points.
Yang, who took the first place during the qualifying round, failed to
have the right-hand forefinger to grasp the bar. Fortunately, he managed
to adjust and did not fall, but the score was low.
Yang's mistake helped Slovenian Mitja Petkovsek, 2005 world champion, and
South Korean Kim Dae Eun share the gold medals.
"I did not hurt myself," said Yang Wei, who had already defended his
titles at the men's all-round and the team competition.
"Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, that's the competition, " he
added.
At the final of floor exercise, veteran Cheng Fei staged marvelous
performance with the highest A-score of 6.50 points, but she had an
unfortunate farewell action by retreating out of the field.
Taking merely fifth place, Cheng Fei said she felt nervous compared to
her previous competitions.
"I felt there was some problem with my strength," she said after the
competition.
"If I had chosen an action with low difficulty degree, I would have won
the title," she added, but she did choose and did fail.
Cheng Fei and her teammate Jiang Yuyan's poor unsteady performance
enabled the US team adding two medals, with gold from Shawn Johnson and
silver from Alicia Sacramone.
This also makes Johnson claim three gold medals at the championships, the
biggest number in this tournament.
"I still consider Cheng Fei as the biggest rival for Beijing Olympics,"
Johnson told Xinhua.
"When I go back, I will try to increase the difficulty degree," she added.
China's only medal comes from Li Shanshan at the balance beam, but the
15-year-old, who took the first place during the qualifying round, fell
down from the beam.
Thanks to highest difficulty degree of 7.3 points, Li Shanshan managed to
took the silver, a consoling award for her debut show in the
international arena.
Four days ago, it was Li Shanshan who fell out of the field at the floor
exercise during the group competition, making China, the defending
champion, lose to the US team.
Li Shanshan's mistake also helped US veteran Anastasia Liukin claim the
gold medal on the beam with 16.025 points.
Liukin's victory was also partly due to the falls from her teammate
Johnson Shaw, who dropped from the beam twice in her action, relegating
the newly-crowned champion to last place with 14.475 points.
In men's horizontal bar, the most tickling event for the host audience,
German gymnast Fabian Hambuechen entertained the audience by taking the
gold medal, also the first for Germany.
Athens Olympic silver medalist Hiroyuki Tomita from Japan dropped from
the bar twice at Sunday's final, ending up last place.
In men's vault, Poland's Leszek Blanik won first medal for his country in
this world championships.
As a whole in this tournament, powerful Chinese team still dominated the
medal rankings by bringing home with five golds, two silvers and one
bronze, while the US team took the second place with four golds, two
silvers and one bronze.
In Aarhus championships last year, China seized eight golds.
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