China, Japan split gymnastics all-around titles at Universiade
15/8/2005 11:52
After winning the women's and men's team golds respectively, China and
Japan continued to split the women's and men's all-around titles at the 23rd
Universiade gymnastics competitions in Izmir , Turkey on Sunday.
Fan Ye put a
slow start behind her to score highest among all in the last two apparatus for
the women's all-around title. Posting a wining total of 36.424 points, Fan
pushed Suzanne Harmes of the Netherlands into the second place on 35.999 while
British women Elizabeth Tweddle finished third with 35.624.
After scoring
8.762 on the vault, the apparatus in which she does not excels, Fan made a minor
error in her routine on the uneven bars which drew 9.025 points from the judges.
However, Fan rallied to collect 9.200 on the beam, which saw quite a few falls
from players including Tweddle, and went on to notch 9.437 points in the floor
exercise to secure her first all-around title at international
competitions.
"Despite the error on the uneven bars, I stayed calm in the
next two apparatuses," said Fan, the 2003 world beam champion. "I had seldom
competed in all-around before and I was under no pressure."
"I did not think
about the championship but just tried my best in the last two apparatuses," Fan
added. "Luckily for me, other title contenders also made mistakes and I knew I
would win after the judges awarded me a high mark in the floor."
Fan, who had
also led compatriots land the women's team title on Friday, also qualified for
the apparatus finals of beam, uneven bars and floor exercise slated for
Monday.
"I wanted to win in every event, but who knows what will happen?" Fan
said. "I will just try my best."
In the men's all-around final, Japanese
Hiroyuki Tomita scored 9.525 points on the horizontal bar to edge out Kim
Dae-eun of South Korea in the last rotation for the gold.
Tomita triumphed
with a total 55.998 points while Kim, who led Tomita by 0.001 points after five
rotations, had to be content with the silver after managing just 9.212 on the
same apparatus.
Tomita's teammate Takehiro Kashima took home the bronze ahead
of Chinese Liang Fuliang.
The Universiade gymnastics competitions will
conclude on Monday with 10 gold medals on offer in the men's and women's
apparatus finals.
Xinhua News
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