China ended the 2009 World Gymnastics Championships with six gold medals as Deng Linlin, Wang Guanyin and Zou Kai won individual titles at London’s O2 Arena on Sunday.
The Chinese were powerhouses in last year’s Olympic Games in Beijing, winning seven individual golds, as well as more in the team events. They have followed that up by blitzing these championships in the English capital with a total of nine individual medals, five of them coming on Sunday, to show they are still the dominant force in international gymnastics.
“I think the team performed very well,” said Deng, the 17-year-old who picked up gold in the women’s beam. “The main task coming here was to work hard, communicate [with other gymnasts] and get familiar with the venue. We’ve had great success.”
PHOTO: REUTERS
Sunday might have belonged to Beth Tweddle, who thrilled a near-capacity crowd by earning hosts Great Britain their first gold of the championships, in the women’s floor exercise.
But with China picking up further golds through Deng, Wang — in the parallel bars — and Zou, in the high bar, the Asian country will come away from London with a deep sense of satisfaction.
Elsewhere on Sunday, the Chinese grabbed a silver through Feng Zhe (parallel bars) and a bronze through Sui Lu (floor).
The other gold won on the fourth and final day of competition went to Romania’s Marian Dragulescu, who added the men’s vault title to the one he claimed in the floor exercise on Saturday.
What threatened to overshadow a riveting day of action was an injury suffered by Colombia’s Jessica Gil Ortiz, who was up second in the floor after Tweddle. Gil Ortiz landed on her head as she finished off a tumbling exercise a third of the way through her routine. She was treated by seven medics as action was held up for more than five minutes, and she was carried out of the auditorium on a stretcher with her neck in a brace.
Tournament doctor John Aldridge delivered an encouraging update of the South American’s physical status at the close of play, however, saying through a statement that Gil Ortiz’s position was “neurologically intact” and that she was in a “stable condition.”
Deng, who won a team gold in Beijing, picked up her first major individual title with a fantastic score of 15.000 points.
She was run close by Australian Lauren Mitchell, who grabbed silver with 14.875, and Ivana Hong of the US was third.
Zou followed up his gold-medal display on the high bar in Beijing with another thrilling exhibition.
Performing the most difficult routine of all the eight qualifiers, he was a class above and the only competitor to go above 16.000.
Epke Zonderland, of the Netherlands, was a surprise silver medalist and Italy’s Igor Cassina, the 2004 Olympic champion, took bronze.
Wang and Feng stole the show in the parallel bars, the former beating his teammate by just 0.200. Japan’s Kazuhito Tanaka took the bronze.
Tweddle, the 2006 world champion on the uneven bars, delighted the home crowd with a routine of excellent tumbling combinations to open the floor event.
Her score of 14.650 held out despite the best efforts of Australia’s Mitchell, who finished just 0.100 behind to claim her second silver of the day.
Earlier, Dragulescu claimed his second gold medal at this year’s championships by winning the vault to establish himself as arguably the gymnast of the tournament. The 28-year-old, who only recently came out of retirement brought on by neck and back problems, nailed two difficult attempts on the vault in sublime style.
Dragulescu has now won four world vault titles in his career, and eight world golds overall — the other four coming on the floor.
Flavius Koczi grabbed silver to make it a Romanian 1-2, while Anton Golotsutskov took bronze, the same medal the Russian claimed in Beijing last year.
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