Chinese gymnasts get yips on final day

STUTTGART: Chinese gymnasts faltered at the last hurdle of the Stuttgart World Gymnastic Championships on Sunday, seizing just one silver medal on the last day of the meet.

With five golds already in their pockets, the Chinese team was widely considered favorite for the three events - men's parallel bars and women's floor and balance beam - especially after the team won eight golds at last year's Aarhus championships.

But all except one of five Chinese gymnasts from China made major errors during their routines.

Defending parallel bars champion Yang Wei, who was exhausted by a busy competition schedule, made early errors to drop to sixth place with 15.900 points.

Yang, who finished first during the qualifying round, failed to grasp the bar with his right forefinger and, although he didn't fall, the slip restricted him to a low score.

Yang's mistake helped 2005 world champion Slovenian Mitja Petkovsek share gold with South Korean Kim Dae-eun.

"I did not hurt myself," said Yang, who had already defended his titles in the men's all-round and team competition.

"Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose - that's the competition," he added.

In the final of the floor exercise, women's veteran Cheng Fei staged a marvelous performance with the highest A-score of 6.50 points.

But a poorly executed final movement saw her score plummet.

After finishing fifth, Cheng said she felt more nervous an inexplicably weaker during her routine than in her previous competitions.

"I felt there was some problem with my strength," she explained.

"If I had chosen an action with low difficulty degree, I would have won the title," she added.

Chinese gymnasts are instructed to attempt tougher routines in a bid to earn the highest A-scores in the team, all-round and individual events.

Head coach Huang Yubin is convinced that mastering harder tricks has put Chinese gymnasts in good stead.

But many argue that this strategy has gambled too much on difficult routines ever since the International Gymnastics Federation reformed the scoring system by abolishing degree-of-difficulty limits shortly after the 2004 Olympics.

"Our gymnasts are all favored to win gold medals on floor, beam and parallel bars due to their high A-scores," Huang argued.

"Once they give a normal play, they can win the gold medals.

"But this is gymnastics - any accident could happen."

Xiao Qin, Chen Yibing and Cheng Fei convincingly won their events - pommel horse, rings and women's vault respectively - in Stuttgart after successfully executing fraught routines.

But greater degrees of difficulty cost Yang and Cheng on parallel bars and floor, in particular Cheng who prepared an easier routine before the floor final.

"I just wanted to give a try because I wanted to win the floor so much and I knew I had such ability," Cheng said.

The Chinese approach was undermined on Sunday when 15-year-old Li Shanshan won China's only medal for the day, a silver on the beam.

After finishing first in the qualifying round, Li dropped from the beam while executing a difficult routine to finish with a still-stunning A-score of 7.3 points.

Ironically, US veteran Anastasia Liukin, last on beam in the final, claimed the gold with a much easier routine with an A-score 0.6 lower than Li's.

Liukin's victory was also partly contributed to by falls from teammate Shawn Johnson, who dropped from the beam twice in her action to fall to last place.

The error-prone Chinese left the door ajar for the US women, who won four gold medals at the worlds.

Four days ago, Li fell out of the field in the floor exercise to help the US team relinquish the title from China.

And Cheng and teammate Jiang Yuyan's unsteady performance on the floor helped the US team to two more medals - gold to Johnson and silver for Alicia Sacramone.

Johnson claimed three gold medals at the championships in the most outstanding haul.

"I still consider Cheng Fei as the biggest rival for Beijing Olympics," Johnson said.

"When I go back, I will try to increase the difficulty degree," she added.

The Chinese camp was still pleased with its last big show before the Beijing Olympics, warning rivals its gymnasts will be stronger next year.

"We have a good beginning and a bad ending. The problems we found in the worlds is valuable to our preparations for the 2008 Games," Huang said.

"I am very confident".

Chinese fans are equally optimistic, according to a poll by Sina.com. Up to 66 percent of its readers believe the team can win more than five gold medals in Beijing.

In the men's horizontal bar, the audience's favorite event, German gymnast Fabian Hambuechen entertained by taking Germany's first gold medal.

The German ascended to the top after Athens Olympic silver medalist Japanese Hiroyuki Tomita dropped from the bar twice at Sunday's final to end up in last place.

In men's vault, Poland's Leszek Blanik won his country's first medal of the world championships.

Overall, the powerful Chinese team still dominated the medal rankings by bringing home five golds, two silvers and one bronze, while the US team took second place with four golds, two silvers and a bronze.

Xinhua and China Daily

(China Daily 09/11/2007 page22)