China’s Yang Wei wins individual gymnastics gold

Blowing kisses to the crowd after his final routine, Yang won China’s third gymnastics gold in Beijing with a score of 94.575, 2.6 points ahead of Japan’s Kohei Uchimura on 91.975, with Frenchman Benoit Caranobe third on 91.925.

“The result is very good, tremendous, that’s the feeling I was looking for and I really like,” he said after the win. It a was dominant display from Yang, 28, who was a silver medallist in the event at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 but came seventh at the Athens Games four years ago, a disappointment which left him considering retirement.

Yang was part of the Chinese men’s team that won here on Tuesday and also has a team gold from the 2000 Sydney Olympics, taking his tally to three.

The Chinese gymnast suffered an early setback when he stepped out of bounds on the on exercise floor but maintained his composure even though he was in eighth place after the second of six rounds.

Yang closed the gap on his rivals after scoring 16.625 on the rings and was in second place behind Korea’s Tae-young Yang at the halfway mark.

He then surged to the lead with a blistering 16.55 on the vault as the crowd urged him on chanting “Yang Wei, jia you (let’s go)”.

A score of 16.1 on parallel bars extended his lead and meant Yang went into his final round on the high bar ahead by 2.5 points, a massive lead under the new gymnastics scoring system being used at these Olympics for the first time.

Yang needed 12.175 on the high bar to secure gold and took no risks, scoring a solid but unspectacular 14.775 to claim the title.

The Chinese gymnast was so confident of making the score that he blew kisses to the stands raised his arms in victory and waved a Chinese flag before his final score had even flashed up on the scoreboard.

Yang has the chance to win more gold on Sunday, when he competes in the pommel horse and rings finals.

His dominance left the rest of field fighting for silver and bronze, with Uchimura securing second spot despite falling twice from the pommel horse.

Caranobe said he was shocked but thrilled to win bronze, France’s first medal in the individual all-around since the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp.

The Frenchman said he came to Beijing to concentrate on vault and entered the all-around just to have some fun on the various apparatus.

“I got the scores of my life,” he said.

Any hope the 2005 individual world champion, Hiroyuki Tomita of Japan, had of a podium finish ended when he fell to the floor during his rings routine.

Germany’s Fabian Hambuechen’s hopes were also dashed when he slipped from the high beam, an apparatus on which he is world champion.

“Boom. I just went down,” he said. “I was very shocked when I realised I was down. I just thought ‘I have to go back and try my best’. There was a very small chance to medal if I did everything perfect but it was not meant to be.”

With defending Olympic individual champion Paul Hamm of the United States absent from Beijing due to injury, the highest placed American was Jonathan Horton who was ninth.