China

Yang Wei takes triple gold at Worlds

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-10-22 09:34

AARHUS, Denmark - All-around champion Yang Wei triumphed on the parallel bars to seize the third gold at the Aarhus gymnasticsworld championships on Saturday.

The parallel bars victory was China's seventh at these worlds. Yang put in a brilliant swinging routine additional to a number of impressive handstands to earn 16.075 points.

Japan's Hiroyuki Tomita and South Korea's Yoo Won-chul shared the second place to trail Yang by 0.125.

Yang picked up his third gold in Aarhus after his success in the men's team final and victory over Tomita in the all-round.

"I didn't expect to win three golds here for I caught a cold before the team's final, but I just tried my best to finish one apparatus after another," he said.

"I was so tired after the team final due to the cold. I think I got used to training and competing with a cold and that surely help me a lot in Aarhus," said Yang.

"My next step is to improve my precision of routines, but not to focus on the difficulty as my young teammates will probably do. I think I am too old to challenge more difficult routines and I don't need do that for my routine is in a very high level of complexity," said the 26-year-old triple gold medalist.

Last year's all-around winner Tomita went into the final looking to end Japan's gold-medal drought here. His performance proved to be popular with the fans but the judging panel disagreed for a low difficulty pointing degree.

Yang Tae-young, who was controversially denied the all-around crown at the 2004 Athens Olympics due to a judging error on the bars, had been the top qualifier for the event but was upstaged by his less-known compatriot and finished sixth.