Cheng Fei and Yang Wei added two more gold medals on Saturday to increase
China's gold medal tally to eight at the Aarhus gymnastics world championships
in Denmark.
China's Cheng Fei performs on the
floor at the 39th Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Aarhus,
Denmark, October 21, 2006. Cheng who won gold medals with the Chinese team
as well as on floor and vault at the
championships.[Reuters] |
Cheng produced a dynamic performance on the floor to add a piece on China's
glory, while all-around champion Yang dominated the parallel bars, becoming the
only competitor on the apparatus to break the 16-point barrier.
The duo both became the spotlight in Aarhus with three gold medals each to
demonstrate China's power in gymnastics on the road to the 2008 Olympics in
Beijing.
"I'm proud of the Chinese delegation," said Yang. "I wouldn't say I was
surprised at our success, it's just that we've never done this in the past. This
is our best result in the history of gymnastics."
"I hope I can hold on to the Beijing Olympic Games and we can do as well at
the that time," said the 26-year-old.
Philippe Rizzo of Australia captured his country's first ever world title
with a high-flying routine on the horizontal bar.
"It's always good to be the first to win gold and hopefully there're many
more to come," said Rizzo, a silver medalist on the apparatus in 2001.
"I've had a bad couple of years, so it's good to get up there. When you win,
it's awesome, it doesn't get much better than this."
Romanian veteran Marian Dragulescu ensured his title on the vault following
his title in Melbourne 2005 worlds to collect a total of six world champions.
Ukraine's Iryna Krasnianska gave a surprise to grab the gold on beam with her
sublime balancing skills.
China had scooped eight out of 14 golds on offer including the valuable team
titles and the men's all-around crown by Yang, who had three individual golds
all together.
The glory of eight golds surpassed their previous best showing of five titles
at the 2003 championships in Anaheim.
Yang mounted the bars and put in a near-flawless performance to earn him
16.075 points, leaving no chance to the other gymnasts.
Cheng, who had already a gold on the vault, kept up her momentum as she
twisted and flipped her way to gold on the floor with 15.875 points.
"I wanted the floor gold in 2004 but something went wrong and I didn't get
it," said Cheng, who finished fourth at the Athens Olympics. "So I'm delighted
to finally get it right this time."
Romania grasped two golds by Marian Dregulescu out of the floor exercise and
vault. The rest four went to Australia, Britain, Italy and Ukraine on high bar,
uneven bars, women's all-around and beam respectively.
