 Flawless Li stays unparalleled
By Lei Lei (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-08-20 08:32 China's Li Xiaopeng won his second Olympic parallel bars gold medal yesterday and became China's winningest gymnast of all time. Li, who has a team gold from this Games, had won the event at the 2000 Sydney Games. He now has 16 titles, surpassing Li Ning's 14. Said the 27-year-old: "This gold medal is more important for me than the one at the 2000 Games. We have come back on top again after experiencing a low tide. It means the efforts have been rewarded." At the same time Li was modest about his personal feat: "Li Ning is a legend in gymnastics. I watched him in competition when I was young. He is my role model for ever. Since we are in the different eras, I can't surpass him." As the last one to compete yesterday, Li chose a routine with a difficulty level of 6.9, but not his highest one with 7.2. "After seeing the results of the earlier contestants, he decided to use the routine with lower difficulty level to secure a clean victory," said his coach Chen Xiong. "He did a perfect routine today. The hard work he put in deserves the gold." Li's solid routine earned him 16.450 points. Yoo Won-chul from South Korea took silver and Anton Fokin from Uzbekistan bronze. Yoo, the 2006 Worlds runner-up earned 16.250 points. "I'm disappointed, as I didn't get the gold," he said. "I made some mistakes." China's Huang Xu, a three-time Olympian like Li, made a mistake in his routine and garnered only 15.700 points, finishing sixth. Third gold for Zou Li's young teammate Zou Kai won his third gold of the Games by taking the horizontal bar, the last apparatus in gymnastics competition at Beijing. Zou, 20, had won the men's team and floor exercises gold earlier. He thus equaled Li Ning's 1984 feat of three gold medals in one Games. Zou's routine had the highest difficulty level of 7.2. He beat Jonathan Horton of the US and Fabian Hambuechen of Germany. It was China's first high bar Olympic gold. "I didn't think I'd win gold, the German gymnast was the favorite," said Zou. "I've already got two gold, so I was very relaxed on the bar." (China Daily 08/20/2008 page8) |
