 Tiebreak gives He gold, Liukin silver
By Lei Lei (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-08-19 08:26 China's gold medal chase in gymnastics didn't stop with Chen Yibing's win in the rings yesterday. Young He Kexin claimed yet another gold on the uneven bars. It was China's seventh gymnastics gold medal at the Beijing Games, breaking the record of four won in Los Angeles in 1984. He registered the same score of of 16.725 points as American Nastia Liukin, the winner of the all-round gold earlier in the Games, but claimed the title under a tiebreak rule. China's Yang Yilin took bronze with 16.650 points.
He, who almost failed to make the final when she fell from the bar in qualifications, did not let her second chance slip. "After the qualification, I told myself to forget the past and just focus on the final," the 16-year-old He said. "I didn't think too much about the results, so I just performed in a relaxed way, which gave me less pressure." He, who took to the floor first, impressed the judges with a routine that had a high degree of difficulty. Liukin was happy with the outcome. "It would have been good to have gold medal, but it's an Olympic medal and I'm proud," said the 18-year-old. "I went out there and did a good routine, so I'm happy. "I saw the second place next to my name but then I saw the results and I was a little bit confused. My dad and I didn't quite understand what was going onbut a medal's a medal and now I'm tied with my dad." "Me and the two Chinese girls, we all had a (degree of difficulty of) 7.7, so it was tough competition and it was a good ending." (China Daily 08/19/2008 page8) |
