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.
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 U.S. 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 take the silver, a consoling award for her debut show in
the international arena.
Li Shanshan fell down from
the beam on Sunday at?the Stuttgart world gymnastic
championships.
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 U.S. team.
Li Shanshan's mistake also helped U.S. 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 U.S. team took the second place
with four golds, two silvers and one bronze.
In Aarhus championships last year, China seized eight golds.
(Xinhua News Agency September 10, 2007)
