The Hindu : Sport / Gymnastics : Yibing, Zhou take all-around titles

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Wednesday, Aug 02, 2006

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Sport - Gymnastics

Yibing, Zhou take all-around titles

Sports Reporter

— Photo: Sandeep Saxena

CHAMPION: China's Chen Yibing on way to winning the men's individual all around title.

SURAT: The World Cup roman rings champion Chen Yibing held on to give China its third gold at the 3rd Asian gymnastics championship here on Tuesday.

The 21-year-old Yibing not only dominated his favourite apparatus, the roman rings, but also vaulted fantastically to tally 92.450 points to win gold. Yibing went into the final as an overwhelming favourite, but Sano Tomoharu almost caused an upset.

Tomoharu, the bronze medallist on floor at the 2005 Melbourne World Championships, however, scored better than Yibing on the pommel horse and horizontal bar to finish a close second at 91.400. Tomoharu's team-mate, Kusu Horaki (90.350) edged out defending champion, China's Liang Fuliang (89.950), to the third place.

At the 2003 Asians, Fuliang had led a 1-2-3 finish for China, forcing the Asian Gymnastics Union to limit two gymnasts from each country in the individual events.

Upstaging the favourite

In the women's event, the World Cup uneven bar champion in Stuttgart, Zhuoro Zhou of China, upstaged favourite Ning He to take the gold medal.

Zhou was best on beam, completing a flawless sequence as she did on the uneven bars for 60.500 points. He was close second at 59.950.

North Korea's Pyon Kwangsun took the bronze medal with 57.450 points, ahead of team-mate Hong Su Jong (57.250).

Aliya Yussupova, the World No. 7 from Kazakhstan, gave a stunning performance with rope, ball, club and ribbon to give her country the first gold medal in the championship. She repeated her spectacular sequences to take the individual all-around crown.

Poor show by Indians

India's woes continued as the host finished ninth in the team event and in the individual all-around, Kiranjeet Kaur and Jashandeep Kaur took the last two positions among the 19 gymnasts who qualified for the final. The Indian duo failed to even make it to double digits in any of the four apparatus.

The results:

Individual all-around:

Men (read as floor, pommel horse, rings, vault, parallel bar, horizontal bar): 1. Chen Yibing (Chn) (15.000, 15.000, 16.150, 16.300, 15.050, 14.950) 92.450; 2. Sano Tomoharu (Jpn) (14.450, 14.700, 15.500, 16.100, 15.400, 15.250) 91.400; 3.Kusu Hiroaki (Jpn) (14.350, 14.600, 15.150, 15.700, 15.450, 15.100) 90.350.

14. Mayank Srivastava (Ind) (13.450, 12.600, 12.300, 15.700, 14.250, 13.100) 81.400; 23. Ashish Kumar (Ind) (15.050, 13.800, 13.450, 0.000, 13.850, 12.400) 68.550.

Women (read as floor, vault, uneven bar, beam): 1. Zhuoru Zhou (Chn) (14.850, 14.150, 15.600, 15.900) 60.500; 2. Ning He (Chn) (14.550, 14.200, 15.800, 15.400) 59.950, 3. Pyon Kwangsun (Prk) (13.600, 14.600, 15.100, 14.150) 57.450.

18. P. Meenakshi (Ind) (11.900, 13.000, 10.250, 10.650) 45.800; 20. Rupali Haldar (Ind) (9.850, 13.250, 9.250, 11.500) 43.850.

Rhythmic gymnastics:

Team: 1. Kazakhstan (Aidana Kauldasheva, Maiya Zainullina, Aliya Yussupova) 143.548, 2. Japan (Yuria Onuki, Ai Yokochi, Yukari Murata) 135.675, 3. China (Ding Yidan, Liang Yuting, Xiao Yiming) 133.524.

9. India (Jashandeep Kaur, Anita Ramola, Kiranjeet Kaur) 73.64.

Individual all-around (read as rope, ball, club, ribbon): 1. Aliya Yussupova (Kaz) (15.942, 16.834, 14.858, 16.008) 63.642; 2. Yukari Murata (Jpn) (13.292, 14.150, 14.066, 13.966) 55.474; 3. Xiao Yiming (Chn) (13.800, 14.534, 13.375, 12.266) 53.975.

18. Kiranjeet Kaur (Ind) (6.708, 7.084, 6.692, 6.616) 27.100, 19. Jashandeep Kaur (Ind) (6.100, 6.508, 6.825, 6.892) 26.325.

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