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China's gym interpretation for championships

By Li Qian (Chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2006-10-13 17:38

The Chinese national gymnastics team will be attending the 2006 World Championship which will be held in Aarhus, Denmark on Oct. 13 local time. The 14-member roster released by the gymnastics authorities is well-planned to bring home the gold through their own strategy.

By interpreting the list, it's easy to see that the aim of the men's team is to recapture the lost group gold medal of two years ago, as well going for gold in individual events, while the women aim at better results in group events.

China's gym interpretation for championships
Cheng Fei jumps during a competition in this undated photo.

The men's and women's team consists of seven gymnasts respectively. Experienced Yang Wei, mid-generation Xiao Qin, Liang Fuliang and Feng Jing, and new players showing up in the past two years Chen Yibing, Dong Zhendong, and Zou Kai are on the men's squad.

Twenty-six-year-old Yang is an all-around gymnast with almost the best ability seen on the male national team in nearly ten years. He grabbed the individual all-around gold medal in the 1998 Asian Games when he first competed at international level.

As a gymnast with excellent horse vault perfoormances, Yang is highly expected to leading the Chinese team to gold.

Xiao is internationally acclaimed as the 'King of the pommel horse', as he gained every world pommel horse champion title.

Liang is expected to develop himself into a strong all-around player as Yang is now, and his competence on the floor exercise is also worth developing fully.

It's fortunate for Feng Jing to be on the roster as Huang Xu was struck with injury. Actually Feng won the world championship individual all-around title as early as six years ago, though he didn't get a chance to appear in international competitions afterwards for all kinds of unexpected reasons.

As gymnasts started attending big events after the 2004 Olympics, Chen, Dong and Zou displayed their respective advantages. Chen is good at rings, with remarkable all-around skills. Dong does well on the pommel horse. Eighteen -year-old Zou is an outstanding floor exercise athlete rarely seen in recent years in the country.

Compare with the men, the women's gymnastics squad is largely made up of fairly new athletes, except Zhang Nan and Cheng Fei.

Zhang, who will spearhead the women's team, won the third place at the World Championship and Olympics individual all-around competitions, a fairly good result recently for the women's team.

Cheng specializes in the floor exercise and vault, and is the first Chinese woman to win a gold medal in vault at the World Championships. Cheng made history at the 2005 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships when she successfully performed a series of vault actions that perhaps was the most difficult vault attempted by a female gymnast. The move is now officially called 'the Cheng'. She will strive for a medal on the floor exercise.

Li Ya is a typical Chinese female gymnast, who is strong on the uneven bars and balance beam.

Pang Panpan can get high marks in every single event. Huang Lu specializes in uneven bars. Zhou Zhuoru is well prepared for the balance beam. Fifteen-year-old He Ning has strong potential to do well in individual all-around events.

The list caused an uproar when it was publicized. Athens pommel horse gold winner Teng Haibin was excluded from the 14-member squad, and the 2003 balance beam world champion Fan Ye was the next striking figure to miss the upcoming championship.

According to gymnastics authorities, the roster was made after serious consideration to ensure a balance of athletes in group events.