Lee wins 1st-ever gymnastics gold at Asiad for Chinese Taipei

JAKARTA - Lee Chihkai made history by winning the first ever gymnastics gold at the Asian Games for Chinese Taipei winning the pommel horse final here on Thursday.

The 22-year-old Lee, also the silver medallist of the event at the 2018 Doha World Cup in March, won the dream gold with an unscathed routine featured with highest difficulty and execution scores, namely 6.300 and 9.100. He earned 15.400 points in total, the personal best.

China's Zou Jingyuan and Sun Wei won the silver and bronze medals with 15.100 and 15.075 respectively.

"There's no word to express my feelings now. I have dreamed of the gold, but not a history maker," said Lee, emotionally at the mixed zone. "Last year, also on August 23, I won my first gold medal in pommel horse at the Universiade. I will never forget the date."

Lee noted the floor exercise final before the pommel horse competition, in which he finished the fourth, actually proved to be a warm-up for him.

"I came on stage, knowing well I can do it, I'm all focused. And I made it," he said.

"My next goal is Tokyo (Olympics) apparently. I have one of the most difficult routines (on pommel horse). I have confidence and I will go all out for it," he added.

Lee reached the final of the vault as the top finisher in the qualification, followed by Zou and Sun, and he will also compete in the parallel bars final on Friday.