China Reaps Three More Golds to Top Medal Tally at Gymnastics Worlds

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, August 25, 2003

China Reaps Three More Golds to Top Medal Tally at Gymnastics Worlds

Chinese gymnasts took three of the five gold medals on offer on Sunday to top the final medal tally at the 37th world gymnastics championships which concluded Sunday evening.

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Chinese gymnasts took three of the five gold medals on offer on Sunday to top the final medal tally at the 37th world gymnastics championships which concluded Sunday evening.

From the nine-day competitions, the Chinese collected five gold medals, two silvers and one bronze, beating hosting United States to second (5-2-0) on the tally, followed by Japan with 2-0-2 and Bulgaria 2-0-0.

"This is the biggest harvest for the Chinese gymnasts in the history of the championships, and the Chinese will be unbeatable if we can always have a steady performance from both veteran competitors like Li Xiaopeng and newcomer gymnasts like Teng Haibin," said Chinese head coach Huang Yubin.

Li became the most versatile gymnast at the championships, with three gold medals to his credit including the team title, while Teng Haibin won the pommel horse and their women compatriot Fan Ye triumphed on the balance beam.

After competing on all three events of the day, Li, a member of China's team title-winning men's team and the parallel bars winner at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, said: "I'm going for the record number of 14 world and Olympic titles set by compatriot Li Nin. I'm closing in but I still need to work hard to improve my skills."

Li, who has bagged 13 world and Olympic titles so far, was the only double gold medalist at 2002 worlds on parallel bars and vault, and successfully defended his world titles at this year's event at Arrowhead Pond.

The Chinese performed some of the most difficult vaults, like Tsukahara double backs and front handspring double fronts with half outs, not done by any other gymnast in the world.

"I feel I can do my job. I felt very confident, and I trusted myself," Li said.

The 1999 and 2002 world champion on vault played his signature routines, both at a starting value of 10, to collect an average 9.818 points for the top honor, beating 2001 world champion Marian Dragulescu of Romania to second with 9.687.

"Even through my rivals had high scores, I was still full of confidence of winning the title, and I just focused on what I should do on the vault," said the Chinese.

"I didn't expect first place, I didn't think I could reach it," said Dragalescu. "I knew that my only chance was if (Li Xiaopeng) made a mistake. But obviously he was good."

Following his victory on vault, Li, the parallel bars Olympic champion, scored the day-high 9.825 points to keep his another world title tightly, beating compatriot Huang Xu and Russian veteran Alexei Nemov to a tied second place with 9.762 points apiece on the parallel bars.

"This is the first time I've put it (new skill) in competition. I was very nervous. You can't make even a little mistake or you won't win,"said Li, adding that"my difficulty level needs to improve (on horizontal bar)."

"He (Li Xiaopeng) is mentally really tough, that's his advantage over everyone," commented teammate Huang Xu. "I hope to train better this winter so I can do better at the Olympics."

Apart from Li, China also savored its first gold medal from its women gymnasts as 17-year-old Fan Ye, who made her international debut, performed her routine with a 10-point start value to score her winning 9.812 points from the balance beam. Romanian Catalina Ponor, who had the highest qualifying score on the floor, got the silver medal with 9.587 points, while Russian Liudmila Ezhova settled for the bronze medal with 9.550.

Three of the eight finalists fell from the beam, including all-around champion Chellsie Memmel of the United States who placed sixth with 8.837, the last hope for the hosts for any medal in the last-day finals after its five-gold-and-two-silver haul on Saturday.

While Daiane Dos Santos awarded Brazil its first medal, and the one gold medal from the women's floor as she was the only gymnast in the competition tumbling a piked Arabian double front, a Super E element, Spain also stamped its footing on the tally as Elena Gomez finished third on the event, where Romanian Catalina Ponor took the silver.

In the last final of the championships, Japanese Takehiro Kashima, who shared on Saturday with Chinese Teng Haibin for his first title on the pommel horse, scored 9.775 points to take his second gold, on the men's horizontal bar, beating Italian Igor Cassina to second with 9.750 points, and Russian veteran Alexei Nemov to third with 9.737 points.

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