OLYMPICS/ Team china
China ooze style to retain men's team gold at worlds
(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-09-07 04:16
Russia had been relieved to reach the final after a dreadful qualifying session where they had to compete with two hobbling gymnasts.
Lacklustre displays on the floor, pommel horse and vault left them below less established teams such as fifth-placed South Korea and sixth-placed Spain. Romania finished last.
Men's gold keeps China's Olympic ambitions on track
STUTTGART, Germany - China's male gymnasts annihilated the opposition in the team final at the world championships on Thursday to keep their dreams of Olympic dominance on home soil next year firmly on track.
Xiao Qin celebrates after performing on the pommel horse during the men's team final. [Reuters]
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The win will lift their already soaring confidence even higher, said defending all-round champion Yang Wei.
"This has been the fifth time that I won the team gold medal. Each time it has strengthened the team spirit," the 27-year-old told a news conference.
Such is the depth of their squad that they finished with a convincing lead over second-placed Japan even without double Olympic and eight-times world champion Li Xiaopeng, who is missing the championships because of a toe injury.
The members of the gold medal-winning team are not even guaranteed a place in the Olympic squad because there are so many other high-calibre gymnasts to chose from.
"We will have to think about it (the Olympic squad) as we have a lot of great gymnasts in China," coach Bai Yuanshao told a news conference.
Success at the 2008 Games is so important to China that head coach Huang Yubin said before the world championships that ensuring their gymnasts avoided injury was more important than winning any gold medals in Stuttgart.
Although they may not match the record eight golds they picked up at last year's world championships, mainly because the women's team came second to the United States on Wednesday, they still look on course for a few more titles.
In the men's team final Chinese gymnasts got the top scores on four of the six apparatus.
All-round and parallel bars champion Yang, pommel horse champion Xiao Qin and rings champion Chen Yibing are all well placed to defend their titles later in the week.
Despite being streets ahead of the pack on many apparatus, they do have a weak spot -- the horizontal bar.
Liang Fuliang fell off the bar in the qualifying session and the rest of the team struggled with their rotations and landings, although they managed to get through the apparatus without any mishaps in the team final.
"I know that other teams are much better on the horizontal bar but I will work on it," said Yang.
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