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China stumbles, still leads with four golds at Olympic gymnastics

GYMNASTICS powerhouse China suffered a flop after collecting only four gold medals against nine four years ago, but sitll strong enough to lead the medal tally.
China added two more gold medals as Deng Linlin and Sui Lu finishing top two on beam and Feng Zhe powered off his opponents on parallel bars.
Zou Kai, defending champion and triple gold medalist at Beijing Olympics, failed to rein in the event, but managed a bronze, which was his third medal here after team and floor.
China was so powerful four years ago snatching seven out of all eight events in men's disciplines. Chinese women team digged deep to take China's first ever women's team victory of Olympics and also topped the uneven bars, accumulating nine golds out of all 14 on offer and 14 medals.
In London, Chinese gymnasts were still considered the strongest, but not in the same weight. Four golds and 12 medals all together is a result admirable for any other team, but actually less than half of Beijing's number in golden color can be counted as a big slide.
China's downturn makes other teams beneficiaries in the carve-up the lost share. Team USA added one more gold than four years ago, but six medals in total was also a downturn from Beijing's ten.
Russians achieved a giant leap from two bronzes to nine medals, including a gold. Japan managed a all-around gold thanks to their top gymnast Kohei Uchimura upon two silvers, which are their turnouts in Beijing.
China's leading Olympic medalist Zou Kai, with five Olympic golds, exposed China's situation of temporary shortage of talented gymnasts as the old ones have retired and rookies failed to fill up the void.
"I have no plan to retire now, but I actually anticipate I can be replaced in the national team by newcomers," said 24-year-old Zou.
"The golden generation including Yang Wei and Li Xiaopeng all retired after the Beijing Olympics at the age of 28 plus. If they can be replaced by new talents at the age of 25, we won't in the situation like today," added Zou.
Yang is the all-around champion in Beijing Olympics and Li is one of the most renowned gymnast in China with four Olympic golds.
China has no all-around finalist in London, which reflected the dire situation in Chinese team. Chinese gymnasts completed all their 18 routines in men's team's final without a single fault, which can be considered as lucky if you put their bundles of mistakes committed in the qualifications into consideration.
In the coming years, China faces an uphill battle in maintaining status quo. According to Zou, the judges committee from FIG, the gymnastics governing body, is set to stipulate rules change at the end of the year.
"Some new rules will be applied next year in curbing China's prevailing power in the event," said Zou.
"I'm going to reduce the difficulty of my routine, I suppose when the new rules are put in effect. The routine from Zonderland (high bar winner from the Netherlands) is much welcomed than mine and that's the trend of gymnastics," added Zou.
"His routine is not likely to be deducted as much as the same score as mine if we execute in the same quality."
For Chinese women team, it's the same problem as men's. Multi world champion Cheng Fei, nicknamed "vault queen", is at the brink of retirement.
There are three American women gymnasts among the top four reaching 60 points in all-around qualifying. The reigning world champion Jordyn Wieber even could not secure her spot in the final for internal competition for the two berths allowed for each team.
Gabby Douglas won the all-around with her teammate Alexandra Raisman in fourth place. The two places between the Americans are taken over by Russian due.
Victoria Komova, the 2011 world championship silver medalist, was placed second and Aliva Mustafina in third.
China's pair Deng Linlin and Huang Qiushuang failed to reach the top five and are ranked sixth and seventh respectively.



 

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