Tennis

Zhang, Feng vault China atop worlds

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-10-26 08:02

ROTTERDAM, Netherlands - Zhang Chenglong and Feng Zhe added to China's gold-medal tally by claiming two more titles on the final day of the world gymnastics championships here on Sunday.

Zhang, 21, took gold on the horizontal bar while Feng, 23, won the parallel bars title to give the Asian gymnastics powerhouse four gold medals after nine days of competition.

Feng and Zhang also helped China to the team gold, with Chen Yibing winning gold on the rings, as in total the Chinese men went home with six medals.

Their women's team had less success with three medals, taking team bronze with Jiang Yuyuan winning all-around silver, and Deng Linlin failing to defend her beam title, on which she took silver.

The tally was far from the nine achieved at the 2008 Beijing Games, but Chinese coach Wang Hongwei expressed his satisfaction at the outcome.

"We're very satisfied with this result because the older members of the team are now gone," said Wang. "We have new ones coming through and we're in a transition period now."

The final competitor, Zhang pulled out an acrobatic routine to score 16.166 points, much to the disappointment of the capacity crowd at the Ahoy Arena which had been vocal in their support of Dutch gymnast Epke Zonderland.

Zonderland had competed first, but his score of 16.033 ensured he took silver for the second straight year as former champion Fabian Hambuechen of Germany took bronze with 15.966.

Earlier, Feng, last year's parallel bars silver medalist, took that title by a 0.150 margin on teammate Teng Haibin, with the bronze going to Japan's all-around champion Kohei Uchimura.

It was the fifth title for China on the apparatus since 2002.

"Traditionally this is a strong apparatus for us," said Teng. "We have a lot of experience and it's one we like to win."

Uchimura, 21, brought his medals tally here to four after defending his all-around title and winning silver in the team and floor events.

Women's all-around and team champion Aliya Mustafina failed to add to her titles on the final day as she won silver on the floor but finished off the podium after a fall off the beam.

Agence France-Presse