3rd Asian Gymnastics Championships

Ashish Kumar (IND)

'Ashish Kumar does India proud'
With this headline the Indian press celebrates the first ever Indian medal at the Asian level when the gymnast Ashish Kumar clinched the bronze in the floor exercises in the 3rd Asian Gymnastics Championships 2006 at the Indoor Stadium of Surat (IND).
The 16-year-old Ashish scored 15.000 points to match Syria's Bahlawan Fadi as the capacity crowd erupted into loud cheers to celebrate India's success.....

3rd Asian Gymnastics Championships 2006
SURAT (West-central India), Indoor Stadium -

The Allahabad-based gymnast Ashish KUMAR showed good control under pressure to perform better than two Koreans and a Japanese in the eight-player field. Ashish, training under Chinese coach Luo, Yupin, was confident going into the apparatus final. He is the only Indian to reach thus far at this championship.
World Cup bronze medallist, Kai, Zou of China found his match in North Korea's Ri, Jong Song as the two shared points to win gold. Kai, who won back-to-back World Cup bronze medals in 2005 and 2006, scored 15.500 points.
Chinese Taipei struck its first medal of the championship when Lin Hsiang-Wei led a 1-2 finish in the pommel horse event.

Men's TEAM Competition:
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
5. India 248.650
6. Uzbekistan 245.400
7. Kazakhstan 243.900; 8. Thailand 243.100; 9. Iran 239.800; 10. Malaysia 235.250; 11. Sri Lanka 222.450; 12. Chinese Taipei 209.500; 13. Kuwait 180.100; 14. Jordan 163.450; 15. Hong Kong 157.850; 16. Bangladesh 129.350; 17. Vietnam 124.600; 18. Syria 97.300.

Men's All-Around
1. Chen Yibing CHN 92.450
2. Tomoharu Sano JPN 91.400
3. Hiroaki Kusu JPN 90.350

4. Liang Fuliang CHN 89.950
5. Yoo Won Chul KOR 89.050
6. Jo Jong Chol PRK 87.900

Chen, Yibing made sure there was no challenge to his domain as the World Cup rings champion won his favourite event after having taken honours in all-around apparatus on Tuesday. Yibing, however, found the going tough as his score of 16.150 was just about threatened by Hong Kong's Zhong Jian (16.100).

Men's results:
Floor exercise: 1. Kai Zou (CHN) 15.500 and Ri Jong Song (PRK) 15.500, 3. Ashish Kumar (IND) 15.000 and Bahlawan Fadi (SYR) 15.000.
Pommel horse: 1. Lin Hsiang-Wei (TPE) 15.225, 2. Huang Che-Kuei (TPE) 15.075, 3. Kim Ji Hoon (KOR) 15.000.
Still rings: 1. Chen Yibing (CHN) 16.150, 2. Zhong Jian (HKG) 16.100, 3. Weng Shin-Hang (TPE) 15.350
Vault: 1. Ri Jong Song (PRK) 16.363, 2. Ei Segwang (PRK) 16.313, 3. Sain Autalipov (KAZ) 16.188.
Parallel bars: 1. Sano Tomoharu (JPN) 15.850, 2. Zhen Dong Dong (CHN) 15.725, 3. Yoo Won Chul (KOR) 15.400.
High bar: 1. Kai Zou (CHN) 15.775, 2. Ryuta Nakazato (JPN) 15.325, 3. Sano Tomoharu (JPN) 15.150.

Ning, He led the charge in women's artistic gymnastics, winning four gold, including three individual apparatus titles, while Kai Zou took the baton from Liang Fuliang, the hero at the 2003 championship in Guangzhou.
Zou capped his solid performance after having won the team gold and the floor title with another gold medal in the horizontal bar. Zou won the last apparatus final of the championship with 15.775 points.
Fuliang's bad patch continued as he failed to better his silver medal performance of Guangzhou, finishing fourth. In the last meet, Yernar Yerimbatov had taken the horizontal title ahead of Fuliang.

Women's Results:
Vault: 1. Hong Un Jong (PRK) 14.825, 2. Hong Su Jong (PRK) 14.550, 3. Ning He (CHN) 14.188.
Uneven bars: 1. Ning He (CHN) 15.475, 2. Zhuoru Zhou (CHN) 15.400, 3. Pyon Kwangsun (PRK) 15.275.
Balance beam: 1. Ning He (CHN) 15.525, 2. Bing Han (CHN) 15.100, 3. Kim Un Hyang (PRK) 14.875.
Floor exercise: 1. Ning He (CHN) 15.025, 2. Zhuoru Zhou (CHN) 15.000, 3. Hong Su Jong (PRK) 14.050.

Women's All-Around
1. Zhou Zhuoru CHN 60.500
2. He Ning CHN 59.950
3. Pyon Kwangsun PRK 57.450

4. Su Jong Hong PRK 57.250
5. Manami Ishizaka JPN 57.050
6. Miki Uemura JPN 56.150

Women's TEAM competition:
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 130.100; 8. Sri Lanka 106.400; 9. Thailand 94.250; 10. Chinese Taipei 92.900; 11. Hong Kong 90.850 ; 12. Singapore 51.400 ; 13. Malaysia 50.000 ; 14. Bangladesh 37.250

agu.sakura.ne.jp

History of Asian Gymnastics Championships.
The 'Asian Gymnastics Union' (AGU) startet with its first Asian event for juniors only in Tokyo 1971.

The first 'Asian Gymnastics Championships' for the elite started 1996 in Changsha (CHN), followed by the 2nd champs 2003 in Guangshou (CHN).
This year the 3rd Asian Gymnastics Championships are held in Surat (India).

>> The officel website of the AGU: agu.sakura.ne.jp

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