The Chinese national gymnastics team will be attending the 2006
World Championship which will be held in Aarhus, Denmark on Oct. 13 local time.
The 14-member roster released by the gymnastics authorities is well-planned to bring
home the gold through their own strategy.
By interpreting the list, it's easy to see that the aim of the men's team is
to recapture the lost group gold medal of two years ago, as well going for gold
in individual events, while the women aim at better results in group events.
Cheng Fei jumps during
a competition in this undated photo. |
The men's and women's team consists of seven gymnasts respectively.
Experienced Yang Wei, mid-generation Xiao Qin, Liang Fuliang and Feng Jing, and
new players showing up in the past two years Chen Yibing, Dong Zhendong, and Zou
Kai are on the men's squad.
Twenty-six-year-old Yang is an all-around gymnast with almost the best
ability seen on the male national team in nearly ten years. He grabbed the
individual all-around gold medal in the 1998 Asian Games when he first competed
at international level.
As a gymnast with excellent horse vault perfoormances, Yang is highly
expected to leading the Chinese team to gold.
Xiao is internationally acclaimed as the 'King of the pommel horse', as he
gained every world pommel horse champion title.
Liang is expected to develop himself into a strong all-around player as Yang
is now, and his competence on the floor exercise is also worth developing fully.
It's fortunate for Feng Jing to be on the roster as Huang Xu was struck with
injury. Actually Feng won the world championship individual all-around title as
early as six years ago, though he didn't get a chance to appear in international
competitions afterwards for all kinds of unexpected reasons.
As gymnasts started attending big events after the 2004 Olympics, Chen, Dong
and Zou displayed their respective advantages. Chen is good at rings, with
remarkable all-around skills. Dong does well on the pommel horse. Eighteen
-year-old Zou is an outstanding floor exercise athlete rarely seen in recent
years in the country.
Compare with the men, the women's gymnastics squad is largely made up of
fairly new athletes, except Zhang Nan and Cheng Fei.
Zhang, who will spearhead the women's team, won the third place at the World
Championship and Olympics individual all-around competitions, a fairly good
result recently for the women's team.
Cheng specializes in the floor exercise and vault, and is the first Chinese
woman to win a gold medal in vault at the World Championships. Cheng made
history at the 2005 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships when she
successfully performed a series of vault actions that perhaps was the most
difficult vault attempted by a female gymnast. The move is now officially called
'the Cheng'. She will strive for a medal on the floor exercise.
Li Ya is a typical Chinese female gymnast, who is strong on the uneven bars
and balance beam.
Pang Panpan can get high marks in every single event. Huang Lu specializes in
uneven bars. Zhou Zhuoru is well prepared for the balance beam. Fifteen-year-old
He Ning has strong potential to do well in individual all-around events.
The list caused an uproar when it was publicized. Athens pommel horse gold
winner Teng Haibin was excluded from the 14-member squad, and the 2003 balance
beam world champion Fan Ye was the next striking figure to miss the upcoming
championship.
According to gymnastics authorities, the roster was made after serious
consideration to ensure a balance of athletes in group events.
