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Gymnastics Olympic test: China sweeps 2 golds on last day
    2007-12-05 16:09:00  Xinhua
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BEIJING, Dec. 3 (Xinhua) -- Chinese gymnasts continued their dominance when Cheng Fei and Liang Mingsheng ruled beam and parallel bars on the last day of the gymnastics Olympic test.

Cheng Fei, China's No. 1 in women squad, dished out the beam title, her third after vault and floor victories. Lauren Michell of Australia finished second. U.S. veteran Chellsie Memmel, the 2005 world all-around champion, took the bronze. .

Both Cheng and Michell got a difficulty valued 6.7, the best among the finalists, but Cheng's quality score is 9.025, a slim 0.125 points better than her Australian opponent.

"Although I made little mistake today, there are more small problems in my routine than that in the qualification. I got a gold medal, but I believe my strong points lie in floor exercise and vault," said Cheng, who dropped from beam at the Stuttgart gymnastic worlds.

"Since my routine in the world championships has reached a top level, there is little room to change my movement," Cheng said.

"For winter training, I will focus on adjusting my psychological condition. My biggest pressure comes from the younger athletes. They are improving rapidly, and at the same time, there is little room for me to improve. I really feel anxious about it."

Memmel, who is recovering from injuries, won her second bronze in the tournament after finishing third in floor.

Memmel won the all-around title and took silvers in beam and uneven bars at the 2005 world championships, but the shoulder injury bothered her at last year's worlds, where she have to quit the all-around after finishing first in qualifications.

In parallel bars, China's Liang Mingsheng and Fengzhe brought more glory to the Chinese squad as they pocketed both the gold and silver medals

Both Liang and Feng are pre-game hopefuls for the gold. Feng, winner of the apparatus in the 2007 World Cup series of Shanghai and Paris, was the top qualifier, followed by Liang. In the final, Liang started with a 6.800 difficulty value. His smooth movements and stable landing earned him 15.800 points.

Feng, though performed with a 7.00 difficulty level, the highest among all competitors, his not so satisfactory execution and a major tumble in landing cost him the chance for a gold. He got the silver with 15.775 points.

"I felt good and did well today," said Liang. " My A score was lower than Feng Zhe's, but my quality was higher than his and he made some mistakes, so I got the gold medal."

The bronze went to Yaeyoung from South Korea. South Korea's Kim Jihoon snatched horizontal bar gold as world champion Fabian Hambuechen made fell down to land on his back.

Germany's Hambuechen, winner of horizontal bar at the 2007 World Championships in Stuttgart, nailed the first position in qualifications. But he suffered a surprising drop when he lost grip of the bar and hit the mat face-up at the very end of his routine. He got 14.00 points and finished in seventh place.

Kim, who placed second after Hambuechen in qualifications, seemed to be quite in style. Shrugging of his teammate's fall of Kim Soomyun, Kim Jihoon the gold with 15.425 points.

"It was slippery. I had wanted to do a double twist, but I didn't land well," said Hambuechen. "It was a new routine. I did it the first time. Japan's Hoshi Yosuke and Tanaka Kazuhito took the silver and bronze, at 15.150 and 15.000.