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China credit victory to underdog tag
2006-10-19
China's women gymnasts credited their historic gold medal at the world championships to one simple factor. This time they were the underdogs. For years an array of talented female gymnasts have emerged from the world's most populated country but when it has come to winning a team title at either an Olympics or world championships, they have crumbled under pressure. The class of 2006 finally rectified that anomaly on Wednesday. They upstaged 2003 champions, the United States, with a spectacular display of gravity-defying skills and imaginative choreography. "Before the championships there was a good gap between us (and the United States). It allowed us to practise without any pressure," 2005 world vault champion Cheng Fei said as she grasped her gleaming gold medal. "Team spirit was an important factor for our victory. I'm satisfied with the Chinese team's performance, especially the way we fought to the end." The victory finally allowed them to share the spotlight with their male counterparts, who had walked off with the men's title a day earlier, and bodes well for the team's fortunes in the runup to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Unlike Yang Wei and the rest of the men's squad, who had to fight back from an atrocious start to win the title, Cheng and her team mates avoided any major drama as they went from one apparatus to the next, nailing almost all their elements. After two finals, the Asian superpower enjoy a 100 percent success rate and look set to be on their way to achieving a record gold medal haul at these championships. Chinese athletes will be competing in all but three apparatus finals over the next three days. He Ning summed up the mood in the Chinese camp when she declared: "The Chinese team is number one."
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