Taiwanese gymnast Tang Chia-hung won a gold medal in the horizontal bar at the FIG World Challenge Cup in Koper, Slovenia, on Sunday, scoring a personal best 15.400 points.
Tang’s triumph extended his run of dominant performances in the lead-up to this summer’s Paris Olympics, for which he has already earned a spot.
The Koper event, held from Thursday last week until Sunday, was the fourth of five competitions making up the FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Challenge Cup, with the last leg in Hungary’s Szombathely scheduled for October after the Paris Olympics.
Photo courtesy of Weng Shih-hang via CNA
Tang, 27, had already won three gold medals in the horizontal bar at the four summer Olympic Games qualifying events that were part of the FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Cup series.
With Tang’s attendance at the Paris Olympics confirmed, the Challenge Cup series served as training for the Olympics, as well as a means to promote Tang to the rest of the world, his coach Weng Shih-hang said.
“I believe the videos of his [Koper] competition will soon circulate in the Internet,” Weng said. “Right now, we intend to let the world know that we are going to the Olympics to snatch a gold medal.”
Tang soared to another first-place finish in Koper with a total score of 15.400, based on an execution score of 8.6 on a routine with a difficulty score of 6.8.
Tang had also scored 15.400 points during the qualifiers, entering the main event as its top competitor, although the score was based on a routine with a difficulty level of 6.3.
Aside from achieving a perfect landing that won him the gold, Tang challenged himself by performing a highly difficulty routine without the use of a mat, which meant no points were deducted for his routine.
Tang was trailed by Croatia’s Tin Srbic who earned a silver medal with a score of 14.950, and Italy’s Carlo Macchini who won bronze with a score of 14.700.
Weng said that there was still room for improvement in Tang’s execution.
“We started planning toward tackling the difficulty level of 6.8 last year,” Weng said. “These last three stops in Europe were for him to work out the kinks. The world of gymnastics is now very competitive and staying put [in his comfort zone] will not achieve success.”
The majority of the European judges in Tang’s last three competitions would also be at the Olympics, and it is the team’s goal to get Tang recognized as a world-class gymnast, Weng added.
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