Beijing: China's Yang Wei maintained China's gymnastics gold rush at the Beijing Olympics with an emphatic win in the individual all-around event on Thursday.
Yang, the reigning world champion in the event, secured China's third gymnastics gold of the Beijing Games ahead of Japan's Kohei Uchimura and Benoit Carabone of France.
He finished on 94.575, 2.6 points ahead of Uchimura on 91.975, with Carabone on 91.925.
It was dominant display from Yang, 28, who was a silver medallist in the event at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 but came seventh at the Athens Games four years ago.
He also won a team gold in Sydney and has claimed seven world championship titles through his career, including the 2006 and 2007 individual titles.
Yang began on exercise floor and pommel horse, two of the lowest scoring of the six men's apparatus, meaning he was in eighth place after two rounds.
But he began to assert his authority in the third round, the rings, where he scored 16.625 to move to second place behind Korea's Tae-young Yang at the halfway mark.
He then surged to the lead with a blistering 16.55 on the vault as the crowd at the 18,000-strong National Indoor Stadium urged him on chanting "Yang Wei, jia you (let's go)".
A score of 16.1 on parallel bars extended his lead and meant Yang went into his final round on the high bar ahead 2.5 points, a massive lead under the new gymnastics scoring system being used at these Olympics for the first time.
Yang needed 12.175 on the high bar to secure gold and took no risks, scoring a solid but unspectacular 14.775 to claim the title.
The Chinese gymnast was so confident of making the score that he blew kisses to the stands and waved a Chinese flag before his final score had even flashed up in the stadium, as the crowd gave him a rock star reception.
Comments
0 comment