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Yang snatches China's second world gymnastics gold
2007-09-07
Yang Wei survived another spectacular fall from the high bar to give China their second gold medal of the world gymnastics championships here on Friday. A day after helping China win a record-equalling eighth men's team crown the 27-year-old Yang, who let 2004 Olympic all-around title slip through his fingers because of a similar high bar tumble, took his seventh world gold. The veteran had looked to be coasting to victory when he dominated the competition, scoring highest on three of the six apparatus - pommel horse, rings and parallel bars. But despite taking a comfortable 3.550-lead onto the final apparatus Yang's gold medal hopes had looked in the balance when he achieved the second lowest mark in the 23-man field with just 13.600 for the high bar. His lead was however enough to secure victory with a combined 93.675 points which put him 1.475 ahead of Germany's Fabian Hambuechen, who snatched his country's first all-around silver after his acrobatics on the high bar. Japan's Hisashi Mizutori took bronze with 91.400. Yang admitted that he knew that given his high bar history he would have to get a good start to secure victory. "The competition is not just about one apparatus. I knew I needed to get a good start," he explained. "It's not a surprise (that I won). "I was a little nervous going onto the high bar, but this will help me to prepare for Beijing. You have got to have a lot of confidence." And he warned that the team were hoping to win more gold over the weekend. "The team and the all-around gold medals are the most important for me and I hope this will inspire the Chinese team to get more and more gold medals." European champion Maxim Deviatovski limped out of the competition after injuring his left ankle in a fall from their penultimate apparatus - the parallel bars. Deviatovski had been lying second behind Yang and looked set to take a medal when he was forced to retire. His withdrawal paved the way for Hambuechen to move up for last year's bronze medal position to the best finish for a German man at worlds. "It's a wonderful feeling. My uncle gave me a pep talk before the parallel bars because I was feeling tired," explained 20-year-old Hambuechen, who helped his team to bronze on Thursday night. "And just before the high bar I looked at my dad and he said 'you're in second now full speed ahead' and I said 'let's go for it'," added Hambuechen, who led the way with a massive 16.050 on the apparatus. Hiroyuki Tomita, the 2005 champion and last year's runner-up, was also feeling the effects of the team final where Japan took silver and dropped to 12th after a poor showing in which he also fell from the high bar. Another high bar casualty was China's Liang Fuliang, sitting second going into the rotation, but who finished eighth. Later Friday defending women's champion Vanessa Ferrari of Italy faces a battle for her all-around crown from Romania's Steliana Nistor and Americans Anastasia Liukin and Shawn Johnson.
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