Asian Games 2014: China dominates women's gymnastics at the games

Yao Jinnan

Incheon, Sep 23 (IANS) Nineteen-year-old Yao Jinnan from China grabbed the gold medal while her team mate Shang Chunsong pocketed the silver medal in the women's all-around event at the Asian Games here Tuesday.

Being the only gymnast in the Chinese team with Olympic experience, Yao gave an extraordinary performance and was ranked the first in three out of four events. In total she took 57.900 points, reports Xinhua.

Shang also did a great job and earned the highest score of 14.900 in beam. She collected a total of 56.950 points. South Korea's Yun Narae won the bronze medal with 55.000 points.

"I think I did well, there were some flaws and I did better in the preliminary round," the gold medallist said. "I made some mistakes on beam."

Yao will compete in the uneven bars final, and she said she will pay more attention to the process rather than results.

"Generally I did great, but I am not satisfied with my performance on floor," Shang said. "I was not so confident before I started, and the better I wanted to do, the stiffer my body would be."

Yun was happy to earn the medal. "I am so satisfied with the result, and I want to do better in apparatus finals," she said.

Yao and her fellows won the team crown for the 11th straight Asian Games with a landslide victory Monday.

Olympic champion, Hong Un-jong of North Korea did not participate in the event. In the qualification round on the previous day, Hong obtained the ticket to the individual all-around finals by placing sixth. It is likely that Hong's withdrawal is a strategic move in preparation for the women's vault final event scheduled on Sept. 24, where she is a strong favourite for the gold medal.

A potential rival for Hong in Wednesday's vault finals is Oksana Chusovitina from Uzbekistan, the 39-year-old legend who won the silver medal next to Hong at the Beijing Olympics.

The Japanese, who won gold medals in the men's team event on Monday, dominated the individual all-around final this afternoon.

Yuya Kamoto ranked first in three out of the six apparatus and took the gold medal with 87.950 points, followed by Masayoshi Yamamoto with 87.500 points. Lee Sang-wook from South Korea won the bronze medal with 87.200 points.

"I focused on the competition the whole time," Kamoto said. "I really want to win the gold medal of parallel bar and I will try my best in other finals."

"I have never thought that I could earn a medal because the Chinese and Japanese gymnasts are really good and I'm a little old in the squad. I just tried not to make mistakes and I did 150 percent of my capability," Lee said.

Huang Yuguo and Yang Shengchao from China, the traditional powerhouse in artistic gymnastics, ranked in fourth and fifth, yielding the championship to Japan for the first time in 36 years.