Print

Mail

wiki links

China's gymnasts clean up with five golds at the world's

The Chinese won three of the five event finals at the world gymnastics championships on Saturday, bringing to five their stash of gold. That's three fewer than they won last year -- and there was still another day to go.

Cheng Fei repeated as vault champion, edging Hong Su Jong of North Korea and Alicia Sacramone of the US. Chen Yibing won his second title on still rings, beating out former world champions Yuri Van Gelder of the Netherlands and Jordan Jovtchev of Bulgaria. Xiao Qin won his third title on pommel horse, topping Krisztian Berki of Hungary and Britain's Louis Smith.

And Yang Yilin won a bronze on the uneven bars, too.

In the other event finals, tiny Ksenia Semenova of Russia beat out Nastia Liukin for the gold on uneven bars.

Diego Hypolito regained his title on the floor. The Brazilian was the world champion in 2005, then finished second to Romania's Marian Dragulescu last year. But Dragulescu and Olympic floor champ Kyle Shewfelt both missed the worlds with injuries.

China won a record eight medals at the worlds last year, including a sweep of the team titles. But the Chinese weren't too concerned with improving on or even matching that haul this time around.

The goal is to cash in next year, when China hosts its first Olympics. So the Chinese brought some youngsters with them. The women left Pang Panpan, a member of last year's world team, and Olympic bronze medalist Zhang Nan at home, bringing three 15-year-olds instead.

The men brought 19-year-old Zou Kai, who had just one other world appearance on his resume.

"The more the better," said Lu Shanzhen. "We'd like to get more younger gymnasts to have more difficult technique so we'll have a bigger group to choose from."
This story has been viewed 764 times.