Chinese gymnasts back on top with best-ever Olympic performance

Source: Xinhua | 08-20-2008 08:06

BEIJING, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- China's all-conquering gymnasts concluded their gold haul at the Beijing Olympics on Tuesday, snatching nine out of the 14 golds on offer.

It's the Chinese gymnasts' best Olympic record. The previous record was set in the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984, when the Chinese harvested 5 gold medals, 4 silver and 2 bronze in gymnastics.

The nine golds also made China's gymnastics team the No. 1 contributor to the country's gold medal tally in a single Olympics.

China and the United States finished on top on Tuesday night, the last night of the gymnastics individual finals at the Beijng Olympic Games.

Earlier, Chinese gymnasts had swept seven gymnastics gold medals, including men's team, women's team, men's all-around, men's floor exercise, women's floor exercise, men's pommel horse, rings, women's uneven bars, men's parallel bars and horizontal bar.

Li Xiaopeng and Zou Kai continued China's gold run on Tuesday, with Li, a three-time Olympian and multi-world champion, was crowned in his speciality apparatus of parallel bars, and Olympic debutant Zou winning China's first horizontal bar gold.

The 27-year-old Li, the most decorated finalist on parallel bars, won gold with a score of 16.450 points. Li added to his medal collection, which includes gold medals at the Sydney Olympic and at the 2002 and 2003 world championships, and a bronze medal at the Athens Olympics.

Zou, 20, was the dark horse among Tuesday's horizonal bar competitors, when he outplayed strong rivals such as reigning world champion Fabian Hambuchen from Germany with the hardest routine of the night.