NANNING, China, May 22 (Xinhua) -- Olympic champion Zou Jingyuan won the parallel bars title at the 2025 National Gymnastics Championships in Nanning, capital of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, on Thursday.
Zou, reigning parallel bars champion from the Tokyo and Paris Olympic Games, returned to training two months ago after an injury lay-off. He did not choose his highest difficulty routine on the apparatus, but still set the highest score of 15.233 points.
"As a professional gymnast, I don't want to talk that much about my injuries. Because every one of us faced this same problem more or less," said Zou, who has struggled with shoulder issues since last year.
"I will try my best to make it to Los Angeles 2028," said the 27-year-old "King of Parallel Bars", who was one of the key members of China's gymnastics team in both Tokyo and Paris.
Local veteran Huang Mingqi, also 27, was Thursday's biggest winner with two golds. He soared to the top of the men's vault podium with an average of 14.566 points, before notching 13.833 points for the horizontal bar title.
"I won my first national title here in my hometown back in 2014, and today I'm lucky enough to get two golds again in front of my local fans," said Huang. "It's not an easy task as a gymnast at my age. All that I want to say is thank you to my supporters."
Zhou Yaqin, Olympic silver medalist in Paris, reigned supreme as balance beam national champion with 15.100 points.
"My goal is to stand on the top podium of this year's world championships. This tournament can help me identify problems on my routines," said Zhou.
Meanwhile, Zhang Yihan took her first individual national title in the women's floor exercise, with 13.600 points. Enditem