10th Chinese National Games - Guangdong dominated

LU, Bo, AA-around winner

FAN, Ye and LU, Bo...

Chinese Xinhuanet reports that gymnastics giant in China Guangdong proved its superiority by taking four out of the 14 golds at the just-concluded gymnastics competition at the 10th National Games.
The Chinese Lu, Bo was the winner af the all-around men's titel and on Friday the balance beam world champion (Anaheim 2003), Fan, Ye won the all-around title in the women's category.

These 10th National Games were also a big national fight of all the Chinese provinces for the crown in sports...

National Teams Fight
Guangdong, which reaped three golds in the last national games, further extended its gold haul at this Games. Fang and Liang, two top gymnasts in China without chance to compete in Athens Olympics, helped Guangdong defend the coveted men's team title, after a close duel with host Jiangsu.
The national women's team, spearheaded by Zhang Yufei, a rising star who was unfortunately eliminated from China's roster for the Athens Olympics because of injures, repeated its glory by edging old foe Hunan to clinch women's team gold. Liang and Zhang brought in two more golds on floor and uneven bars for Guangdong on Saturday in a gold wave.
Hunan, the second largest gold winner in the last national games, maintained its grip on the second place at this Games by launching a late surge Sunday evening, thanks to its world champion Li Xiaopeng and national team member Han Bing.
Li, Xiaopeng who withdrew from the team final because of new foot injures in the qualifications, proved his dominance on vault and parallel bars and brought in two more golds on the two apparatus for Hunan.
Han Bing won another gold for Hunan after upstaging favorites Zhang Nan and Zhang Yufei on balance beam.

Zhang Nan, the Olympics gymnast from Beijing, had a mixed day when she missed the gold on balance beam but snatched one in floor exercises.
Zhang's teammate Chong Wei unexpectedly got a gold on horizontal bar, bringing the Beijing team to the third place on the overall gymnastics gold medal tally. New star Lu Bo of Jiangsu made his name by defeating Athens Olympic gymnast Yang Wei to snatch the men's all-round crown.
Veteran Huang Xu helped send Jiangsu to the third place on the gymnastics gold medal tally, alongside Beijing, after winning a disputed rings gold from defending champion Dong Zhen from Tianjin.
Xiao Qin, who failed to make into the pommel final in Athens, defended the pommel title and won a gold for the Army team. Hubei reaped its only gold medal with the help of Cheng Fei, China's hopeful for breakthrough in international vault and floor competition, who claimed the vault crown as expected.
'Overall, I am satisfied with the performance of our gymnasts,' Lu Shanzhen, coach of the Chinese women gymnastics team on the sideline of the gymnastics competition. He said the women gymnasts had done a much better job at this Games than in the 2004 Athens Games, in which the Chinese women squad ended up with only an all-around bronze.

But women gymnasts should have increased difficulty and improved arrangment of motions, he said, voicing worries that Chinese women gymnasts may lag behind in their weak apparatus of vault and floor while losing their advantages on their strong uneven bars and beam. Under the international gymnastics federation's new rule, the limit on difficulty of routines will be lifted as of 2006 to encourage intensified competition, which poses a challenge to Chinese women gymnasts who traditionally have skillful arrangement of compositions but lacked difficulty, said Lu.

FAN, Ye - world champion 2003

On Friday World champion Fan Ye won the women's gymnastics all-round goldmedal for Hebei.
World champion Fan Ye stormed to women's gymnastics all-round victory by upstaging two other favorites Zhang Yunfei and Cheng Fei at the National Games on Friday.
The 19-year-old Fan, a member in the Chinese squad in Athens and the balance beam gold medallist in 2003 worlds, stole the spotlight from Cheng and Zhang when she surged to the first place in the second round and firmly held on to it through the rounds.
Except for a comparatively low score of 9.184 in her first round of vault, Fan had outstanding exhibitions on uneven bar, balance and floor, scoring 9.700, 9.787 and 9.684 points respectively.
Cheng, also a member in China's Athens squad, had a joyful start when she scored 9.734 points on her strong vault, the highest among her six-strong group.

Vault and floor are two weak apparatus for most Chinese women gymnasts, but are the strong events for Zhang, which makes her China's hopeful in international events for breakthrough on the two apparatus.
But 9.10 points on uneven bars and 9.550 points on balance beamerode her advantage in the first round and dragged her to fourth place in the third round.
Though she made a strong launch in her last rotation of floor, she failed to narrow the distance with top player Fan and settled for a silver with a total of 38.068.
Zhang Yufei, from gymnastics powerhouse Guangdong, maintained all-round first place in the qualifications and the team final, but failed to move further in the all-round final.

ZHANG, Nan (CHN)... goes for gold in Melbourne!

After a dim start with 9.384 points on vault, she managed to climb from the sixth place to the third place in the uneven bar rotation.
But she suffered a fatal setback in the third round, when she fell from the balance beam following a major wobble, earning only 9.017 points. She finished fifth.

<< Zhang Nan the 2004 Athens Olympics all-round bronze winner, received another bronze in Friday's all-round final. 'I am satisfied with the result,' a beaming Fan told a press conference.

'Balance beam is my strong event,' she said, referringto her score of 9.784 points on beam.
She got only 9.15 points on vault with a start value of 9.4, because vault is her weakest apparatus, she said.
Looking to the coming world gymnastics championship, Fan said she is eyeing a gold medal on balance beam and will also 'do her best on other apparatus.'
Source: Xinhuanet

♦♦♦