The Hindu : Sport / Gymnastics : Ning He takes centrestage

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Tuesday, Aug 01, 2006

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Sport - Gymnastics

Ning He takes centrestage

Sports Reporter

— Photo: Sandeep Saxena

ON COURSE: P. Meenakshi, who turned in the best show for India in the women's team event, has made it to the individual all-round final at the Asian gymnastics championship.

SURAT : China unveiled another set of promising gymnasts as a quartet of young girls clinched the gold medal in the women's artistic gymnastics team event at the 3rd Asian championship at the Indoor Stadium here on Monday.

Ning He led the charge with a tally of 59.450 points from four apparatus while Zhou Zhuoru (59.250) came a close second as China took its second gold medal at the championship, after the triumph in the men's event on Sunday.

"Despite the long flight to Mumbai and then tiring train journey to reach here, I think we performed very well,'' said the Chinese women's team coach Wang Liming. Our aim is to build a good teams for the October World championship and the Doha Asian Games,'' added Wang.

N. Korea is a revelation

China tallied 177.500 points to be runaway winner ahead of the surprise pack of North Korean gymnasts (171.250). Japan, the silver medallist at the 2003 Asians in Guangzhou, settled for bronze (168.250).

Ning He has made a strong claim for a place in China's world championship squad with her brilliant performance here. Scoring 14.750 (floor), 14.000 (vault), 15.300 (uneven bars) and 15.500 (beam), He qualified for the final in all events apart from making it to the individual all-round final.

Zhou was second behind He, taking top positions in floor exercise and uneven bars. In her favourite event, the beam, Zhou lost crucial points when she lost her balance during a sequence. That put her 0.350 points behind He and cost her a place in the balance beam final. She made it to the three finals apart from the individual all-round final.

As North Korea progressed, the bronze medallist at the last Asians, South Korea, was pushed out of podium place. India came seventh overall after finishing second behind Vietnam in a sub-division comprising Thailand, Bangladesh, Hong Kong (China), Singapore, Sri Lanka, Chinese Taipei and Malaysia.

The host tallied a score of 130.100 after earning 31.500 on floor, 36.600 on vault, 27.650 on uneven bars and 34.350 over the beam. P. Meenakshi (44.000) top scored for India and came 31st overall, while Amrita Sinha (40.300) was 33rd. The duo made it to the 24-player individual all-round final as only two from a country are considered for the event.

The results:

Women: (read as floor exercise, vault, uneven bar and beam): 1. China (43.700, 41.950, 45.050, 46.800) 177.500; 2. North Korea (41.300, 45.250, 44.750, 39.950) 171.250; 3. Japan (40.400, 42.100, 42.250, 43.500) 168.250; 4. Korea 159.950; 5. Uzbekistan 152.300; 6. Vietnam 134.050; 7. India (31.500, 36.600, 27.650, 34.350) 130.100.

Men (read as floor exercise, pommel horse, roman rings, vault, parallel bar and horizontal bar): 1. China (46.75, 45.20, 46.25, 48.25, 45.55, 45.35) 277.35; 2. Japan (44.00, 43.85, 46.00, 47.25, 46.25, 45.85) 273.20; 3. Korea (44.55, 44.30, 43.35, 47.40, 42.45, 44.40) 266.45; 4. North Korea (42.90, 42.30, 43.90, 48.30, 42.90, 40.10) 260.40, India (Ashish Kumar, Mayank Srivastava, Raja Roy, Deepesh Sahu) (42.10, 39.30, 41.45, 44.20, 42.15, 39.45) 248.65.

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