China grabs three golds in gymnastics worlds
Gold medalist Marian Dragulescu of Romania (C), silver medalist Zou Kai of China (L) and bronze medalist Alexander Shatilov of Israel pose during the victory ceremony of the Floor Exercise final of the 41st Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in London, Britain, Oct. 17, 2009.
LONDON, Oct. 17 -- The Chinese powerhouse grabbed three golds out of five apparatus events at the 41st Artistic Gymnastics World Championships here on Saturday but Olympic champion Zou Kai believed that his performance in the floor was underestimated.
Three-time Olympic champion Zou somersaulted on the floor as the first competitor on Saturday, executing a set of movements pretty well with the highest difficulty score of 6.8 points among the eight finalists.
Gold medalist Zhang Hongtao (C) of China, silver medalist Krisztian Berki of Hungary (L) and bronze medalist Sellathurai P. of Australia pose during the victory ceremony of the Pommel Horse final of the 41st Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in London, Britain, Oct. 17, 2009.
Later, Zhang Hongtao, He Kexin and Yan Mingyong give few chances to the other finalists as they showed great dominance in their specialties.
Zhang lowered the difficulty score of his pommel horse routine to 6.6 points, but amazingly finished his final in an execution score of 9.6 points. He punched into the air with both fists immediately after his landing.
"I just celebrated for doing almost perfectly. I was not thinking about the gold medal," said Zhang after clinching the title in 16.2 points.
Hungarian Berki Krisztian and P. Sellathurai of Australia finished second and third respectively. Berki was 0.125 point behind Zhang and Sellathurai received a score of 15.4 points.
Although he was "very satisfied" with his performance, Zou was 0.025 point behind the final winner Marian Dragulescu as the 29-year-old Romanian veteran pleased the judges well to earn 15.700 points.
"Maybe the judges prefer the style of Dragulescu and he has big fame," said Zou. "Of course, I need to improve the quality of my movements and pay more attention to the details."
Alexander Shatilov of Israel pocketed the bronze with a result of 15.575 points.
Gold medalist He Kexin (2nd L) of China, silver medalist Koko Tsurumi of Japan (L) and bronze medalists Ana Porgras of Romania (2nd R) and Rebecca Bross of the United States pose during the victory ceremony of the Uneven Bars final of the 41st Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in London, Britain, Oct. 17, 2009.
Olympic champion He was unparalleled in the uneven bars as she led the squad easily with 16 points, leaving runnerup Koko Tsurumi from Japan 1.125 point behind.
Anna Porgaras from Romania and U.S. gymnast Rebecca Bross shared the third position at 14.675 points. Bross was the silver medallist in the women's all-around on Friday.
Although Olympic champion and world title holder Chen Yibing unexpectedly failed to qualify for the men's rings final, his Chinese teammate Yan Mingyong completed his job well to take victory at his first World Championships.
American Kayla Williams added a second gold for her team with two brilliant attempts in the women's vault while Olympic champion Hong Un Jong from DPR Korea only managed a fifth finish.
Williams's teammate Bridget Sloan, who clinched the title of the women's all-around on Friday, finished sixth in uneven bars. Newly crowned men's all-around world champion Kohei Uchimura from Japan ranked fourth in the floor final.
Gold medalist Kayla Williams of the United States (C), silver medalist Ariella Kaeslin of Switzerland (L) and bronze medalist Youna Dufournet of France pose during the victory ceremony of the Vault final of the 41st Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in London, Britain, Oct. 17, 2009.
Gold medalist Zhang Hongtao of China competes during Pommel Horse final of the 41st Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in London, Britain, Oct. 17, 2009.
Gold medalist Yan Mingyong (C) of China, silver medalist Jordan Iovtchev (L) of Bulgaria and bronze medalist Oleksandr Vorobiov of Ukraine pose during the victory ceremony of the Rings final of the 41st Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in London, Britain, Oct. 17, 2009.
(Xinhua/Zeng Yi)
1 comments:
While surfing on the internet looking for new sports events I encountered your blog. I find your post interesting. I enjoyed the fact that you have focused only on the most important events from finals from Saturday October 17th. You presented the information in a clear way, summarizing facts and results, which was exactly what I was looking for. For me it looks like summing up the most important facts to let the reader know what is worth knowing from things and left out those, which are not that significant. As you noticed: “The Chinese powerhouse grabbed three golds out of five apparatus events”, which is a great achievement for the Chinese National Team. I think that the fact that China achieves so well sets this country apart as one of the leading ones in the field of gymnastics. Do you think that China will be able to keep their leading position until Olympic Games in 2012?
October 19, 2009 at 8:17 PMBy looking at the photographs on your blog, I visualized the dominating role of China on the 41st Artistic Gymnastics World Championships. It is impressive that so many athletes from Asia were able to perform so well under the pressure of jury. I think that all of them were prepared mentally to fight until the end and to believe in themselves. The words of Zhang:” "I just celebrated for doing almost perfectly. I was not thinking about the gold medal,"” which you used in your post seems to confirm my hypothesis that Chinese athletes did not have any issues with self-esteem, just the opposite; they were convinced that they are self-confident. Reading sport psychology articles and websites led me into the conviction that a high achieving athlete needs to be self-confident in order to become competitive. Because I am neither a sport psychologist nor a gymnast, I am not able to say what is important in that sport. But it does not change the fact that I am impressed by your blog and the fact that you keep posting new information so regularly and keep it so objective. It is amazing that you write about such a variety of sports. Are you interested in sports so much or are you an athlete?
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