Chinese veteran Yang Wei won his first individual championship
ever in the men's all-around on Thursday since his debut in the
1999 world championships.
China extended their dominance to the individual events after
sweeping both the team's titles with Yang Wei finishing first with
94.400 points.
Hiroyuki Tomita from Japan took the silver with 93.175 and
German teenager Fabian Hambuechen was third to win his first world
medal with 92.975.
Yang, a member of the 2000 Olympic champion team, seemed doomed
to the runner-up spot until now, finishing second at both the 2000
Sydney Olympics and the 2003 Anaheim worlds.
"I have been waiting for this world champion for a long time.
The experience from the past years weighs more than the gold I won
today," said Yang.
"I didn't worry about whether I would win or not before the
event started. If I win here, it's a new start for me on the road
to Beijing and if I don't, I will still fully prepare myself for
Beijing. So the result is the same for me in my next plan,"
"But actually I got something from the title and that's I
recovered my confidence here. I even planned to retire after my
setback in the Athens Olympics, but my coach told me to hold on for
the Beijing Olympics, which is a one-time-for-life.
So I just remained in the national team to train and put my eyes to
a long destination, the Beijing Olympics," added Yang.
"I think I was much influenced by the young gymnasts, for I am
the only experienced athlete here after Huang Xu was ruled out of
the championships. I stayed with the young and I felt I was young
too just like a debutant here, which surely helped me relax and
don't bother to think too much."
Defending champion Hiroyuki Tomita was saddened by his second
loss to Yang following the team's final. "I did what I could, but
Yang just performed better than me. Yang is worthy of the title,"
said Tomita.
Meanwhile, 19-year-old German wunderkind Fabien Hambuechen
seemed very contented with the bronze. "This was the best
competition I ever did. It was my first big medal in all-round, and
I hope that will continue," said Hambuechen.
"It has been the best day of my life. I don't know what will
happen in the future, but I will mainly focused on the next year's
Stuttgart championships for a spot in Beijing Olympic Games. I
don't know whether I will win anything in Beijing, what I need to
do is to try to qualify and get everything ready before the
Olympics come," Hambuechen said.
Chen Yibing, a member of China's world champion team, was fourth
with 92.625 points. Ranking 5th to 8th were Maxim Deviatovski of
Russia, 92.550; Takuya Nakase of Japan, 91.650; Yang Tae-Young of
South Korea, 90.700 and Dorin Razvan Selariu of Romania,
90.600.
(Xinhua News Agency October 20, 2006)
