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October 19, 2009

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Home » Sports » Gymnastics

Chinese stars extend golden run at worlds

WANG Guanyin extended China's winning streak at the World Gymnastics Championships at the O2 Arena in London, taking the gold medal on the parallel bars.

Wang edged teammate Feng Zhe to give China its fifth gold medal at this worlds. Kazuhito Tanaka of Japan won the bronze medal.

Wang, who had been outclassed by Feng in qualifying, put in a brilliant swinging routine incorporating a number of impressive handstands to earn 15.975.

Feng paid the price for swaying slightly during one of his handstands and taking a sidestep in his double pike dismount. He scored 15.775.

China dominated the Beijing Olympics, winning both team titles and seven other gold medals. Despite retooling its team, it's been more of the same in London.

Earlier in the day, Deng Linlin won gold on the balance beam; China won three of the five individual titles on Saturday.

Romania's Ana Porgras had been the top qualifier for the final in the apparatus but once the 15-year-old debutante fell off during her tumbling sequences, Deng knew that all she had to do was keep her poise for 80 seconds and the title would be hers.

She performed a series of solid twists and flips to score 15.000.

Mistakes by Porgras and Chinese favorite Yang Yilin, who finished seventh and eighth, respectively, in the eight-woman final, allowed Australian Lauren Mitchell to pick up a surprise silver with 14.875. American Ivana Hong finished third.

Earlier, Marian Dragulescu won his fourth title on the vault. It was the second gold medal in as many days for the Romanian, who retired for about eight months after the Beijing Olympics because of chronic back and neck problems.

Having tumbled to glory on the floor a day earlier, the 28-year-old made sure he landed on two feet following both of his vaults to win his eighth world title overall with an average of 16.575.

He edged teammate Flavius Koczi by 0.238 while Russian Anton Golotsutskov earned the bronze.



 

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