 Shanshan's parallel universe
By Lei Lei (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-08-19 08:32
The host gymnasts will continue their gold medal hunt today, with two veterans eyeing a medal sweep in the men's parallel bars and young gymnast Li Shanshan expected to challenge a US world champ on balance beam. Multiple world champion Li Xiaopeng, an expert on parallel bars, finished third in the Athens Games, after which he had an operation on his injured foot and only returned to competition last year. But the three-time Olympian returned to peak form at the World Cup Series in Germany last year, winning the gold medal on parallel bars, and is the top qualifier for today's Olympic final. Li distinguishes himself with attempts at highly difficult routines and excellent execution on the parallel bars. To improve his chances of a win, he even gave up his chance to compete on vault, his other specialty, for fear it may injure his foot and jeopardize his parallel bars performance. Li's teammate Huang Xu, who ranked seventh in the qualifications, is also strong on the apparatus. German gymnastics talent Fabian Hambuechen and Yang Tae-young from South Korea will also strive for a medal. The balance beam has always been considered a weak point for Chinese women gymnasts, but Li will carry the hope for the host country entering the finals in first place. The 16-year-old has mastered a routine with a difficulty score as high as 7.3 points, but she still has to compete with American world champions Nastia Liukin, the reigning world champion on the apparatus, and Shawn Johnson, current world all-around champion. China's team leader Cheng Fei, who failed to reach a gold in her favorite vault and settled with a bronze, will also seize the last opportunity at the Beijing Games. Horizontal bar is China's traditionally weak apparatus for men, and the country is pinning its hope on Zou Kai, who has already won the floor exercise and the men's team in Beijing, for a breakthrough. Zou, who scored the highest on the apparatus in the men's team contest, said he may raise his difficulty score in the horizontal bar final. But reigning world horizontal bar champion Hambuchen, placed first in qualifications, will try his best to defend the title, after his unexpected fall from his specialty during the men's team and individual all-around competitions. Hiroyuki Tomita from Japan, the 2005 all-around world champion, will also strive for his first medal in Beijing. (China Daily 08/19/2008 page22) |
