The Hindu : Sport : Xiao Qin and Sandra Izbasa emerge triumphant

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Xiao Qin and Sandra Izbasa emerge triumphant

— PHOTO: AP

IMPRESSIVE: With a faultless display Romania’s Sandra Izbasa took the women’s gold in the floor exercise on Sunday.

BEIJING: Triple World champion Xiao Qin will finally get to take a holiday after swivelling his way to the men’s pommel horse title on Sunday and handing China its fifth gold medal in the Olympic gymnastics competition.

Mounting the pommel with his eyes locked on the block of wood, Xiao rotated with ease and punched his fists in the air as he nailed his dismount and earned 15.875 to continue China’s gold rush.

Xiao edged out Croatian silver medallist Filip Ude by 0.15 of a point. Britain’s Louis Smith earned the same 15.725 score as Filip but after the tiebreak rule was applied he finished third.

Neither Smith or Filip threatened to topple Xiao from the top spot and once victory was confirmed, the 23-year-old yelled: “I get to take a vacation.”

He saluted the crowd before stepping on to the podium to receive yet another gold after his success in the team final.

“I intended to do this (salute) in the Athens Olympics but I didn’t have the chance, today I was able to do it,” grinned Xiao, who had failed to qualify for the finals four years ago.

He added: “The longest holiday I have had in the last few years was three days and now I can finally take a rest.”

While Ude earned Croatia their first ever Olympic gymnastics medal, Smith broke Britain’s century-long wait for an individual medallist at the Games.

“Crazy, amazing, emotional, scared, nervous, it was just unbelievable,” said Smith, 19.

His coach Paul Hall added: “This is our first medal in an apparatus final for 100 years, so it shows that we’re on the up and up. We’ve got a young team that are really doing well so it’s a wonderful night for British gymnastics.

“I hope it means the start of something big ... for 2012.”

Since Teng Haibin’s triumph in Anaheim in 2003, Chinese men have won every world and Olympic title on the apparatus. Xiao’s win also equalled China’s best gymnastics gold medal haul at the Games.

All-round champion Yang Wei failed to increase his personal tally and finished fourth.

Flawless

Meanwhile, Romanian gymnast Sandra Izbasa impressed judges with her flawless tumbling and elegant leaps to win Olympic women’s gold in the floor exercise.

The last competitor, she took to the floor with confidence to score 15.650, eclipsing American world champion Shawn Johnson by 0.150. All-around champion Nastia Liukin grabbed the bronze.

Fei finishes seventh

China’s Cheng Fei, one of the favourites, burst into tears after slipping up for the second time in a day.

Having landed on her knees in the vault final where she won bronze, she skidded backwards after her penultimate tumble to finish seventh.

Brazilian former World champion Daiane dos Santos put herself out of the running by landing her last two tumbling combinations outside the marked area.

Izbasa had already won a bronze in the team competition. — Agencies

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