China prove to be nation of gymnastics specialists

Olympic high-bar gold medallist Zou Kai and teenager Sui Lu led one-two finishes for China in individual events at the world gymnastics championships on Sunday, to prove they are a nation of specialists. China finished top of the table, as they did last year, with 12 medals including four golds. The United States also grabbed four golds, with a total medal haul of seven. Hosts Japan won two titles and seven medals in all. Zou, 23, regained the world horizontal bar title, which he lost in his absence last year, by narrowly beating defending champion and teammate Zhang Chenglong by 16.441 to 16.366. Japan's Kohei Uchimura, who in the past two days won an unprecedented third straight all-around title as well as the floor exercise, finished third on 16.333 to lift what he called an "unexpected" medal. Sui, 19, who already has the 2009 world floor exercise bronze in her medal collection, scored 15.866 points on the balance beam to lift her first world title. Her teammate Yao Jinnan finished second on 15.233 and American Jordyn Wieber, who won the women's all-around title, third on 15.133. On the floor exercise, Sui yielded the gold by 0.067 points to Russia's Kseniia Afanaseva who won with 15.133. "I have gained a lot of confidence by taking back the high bar title," said Zou, who also won the floor gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. "I want to work harder still and maintain my D-score (which evaluates the difficulty value of performance) at the top of the world. "Pressure is on everybody in the horizontal bar final in which the success rate matters. If you can keep your nerves and perform your way, you win." Zou finished runner-up to Uchimura on the floor on Saturday when China's Olympic rings gold medallist Chen Yibing won his fourth world championship title on his trademark apparatus. The Chinese men, who won a fifth straight world team title in Tokyo adding to their 2008 Olympic gold, featured Olympic and world champions, but lacked solid all-arounders like Uchimura. Sui, who combined with Yao and other teammates to finish third behind the United States and Russia in the women's team final, admitted of her beam performance: "I was so tense during my routine that I almost lost my head. "But I knew you would calm down by taking a deep breath. It worked. "I will train hard on the floor and the uneven bars as well. I want to be good in all events." In other events, US national champion Danell Leyva won the parallel bars. Yang Hak-Seon won the men's vault title to become South Korea's fourth world champion and the first since 2007, when Kim Dae-Eun won the men's parallel bars. "I'm 80 percent satisfied because I made a mistake in landing," said Yang, a 19-year-old sports university student, who was fourth at last year's championships in Rotterdam. He stepped in landing on both vaults but he marked the final's best score of 16.866 in his first attempt. "I've trained so hard that I didn't bother to play around by going to (night)clubs," he quipped. Asked about his Olympic target, he replied: "Of course, the gold medal. "I do the all-around but the vault is my favourite. I want to catch up with Uchimura." Uchimura, 22, who has been hampered in recent weeks by recurring leg cramps, but has not suffered from them during the 10-day championships, said: "I've managed to achieve what I should have achieved, although I was not in perfect condition. That sets me up well for the future."