China finishes with nine gold medals

The 2007 Gymnastics and Trampoline International Invitational Tournament concluded in Beijing yesterday, with the host winning two more gymnastics gold medals and snagging one gold in men's trampoline.

China's Liang Mingsheng and Feng Zhe grabbed gold and silver medals, respectively, on men's parallel bars, with Yang Taeyoung from South Korea finishing third.

World champion Cheng Fei won a gold medal in women's beam to conclude the competitions. It was Cheng's third gold of the six-day event and China's ninth. Lauren Mitchell from Australia and Chellsie Memmel from the US settled for silver and bronze in beam, respectively.

Even though she won a gold on the beam, which is not considered Cheng's best event, the new Chinese captain was not fully satisfied with her performance.

"Although I made few mistakes today, there were still some small problems in my routine," said the 19-year-old Cheng. "I got the gold today, but I still believe my advantages are in floor exercise and vault."

Cheng won gold medals in those events on Sunday.

Kim Ji-hoon from South Korea won gold in men's horizontal bar, followed by Yosuke Hoshi and Kazuhto Tanaka from Japan. Germany's 2007 world champion, Fabian Hambuechen, finished a disappointing seventh place after he lost his grip at the end of the routine and crashed to the ground.

"It was slippery," Hambuechen explained afterwards. "I had wanted to do a double twist, but I didn't land well."

With four golds, China's Lu Bin was the biggest winner of the tournament, taking first in men's rings, vault, pommel horse and men's team. China's Jiang Yuyuan also won the women's all-around.

In the men's trampoline final, the last event of the two tournaments, China's reigning world champion Ye Shuai clinched the gold with 40.40 points.

(China Daily 12/04/2007 page22)