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China's Yang Wei performs on the rings during gymnastics artistic apparatus finals of Beijing 2008 Olympic Games at National Indoor Stadium in Beijing, China, Aug. 18, 2008. (Xinhua/Ren Long)
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Chen Yibing claimed rings title on Monday at the Beijing Olympics, the second Olympic gold in the event in China's gymnastic history.
It took China 24 years to make the achievement after the sport's legend Li Ning brought the first rings gold at the Los Angeles Olympics.
That was also the hosts' sixth gymnastic gold at the Beijing Olympics,breaking the record of four golds in the sport also set at the Los Angeles Olympics.
Chen, who made his Olympic debut, remained quite calm in the final despite chants of "Come on"from home fans. Showing no slight sign of shivers, he moved easily from one position to another and put an end to the routine with a solid landing. The next-to-perfect performance won the hearts of judges and secured Chen's leading position with a score of 16.600.
His teammate Yang Wei took the silver by gaining 16.425, sharing the greatest difficulty of 7.5 with French gymnast Danny Pinheiro Rodrigues among eight finalists.
Oleksandr Vorobiov from Ukraine settled the bronze with 16.325.
"I have desired to capture the gold for long. It is not an easy job to reach the goal and I have made lots of efforts. I am very glad. " Chen said after the final.
He also expressed admiration for three-time Olympican Jordan Jovtchev from Bulgaria. "I should learn from him as it is not easy for him to compete at the age of over 30."
Jovtchev took the silver in rings in the Athens Olympics. He cut the difficulty of his routine from 7.3 to 6.8, and only ranked the eighth by getting 15.525.
Yang said after the final, "I often use the routine with the difficulty of 7.5 while Chen takes his routine of 7.3. Although Chen is capable of raising the difficulty, he prefers the easier one for better execution. I think I have done a good job. Chen is surely a little bit better than me in rings. "
As a two-time world champion, Chen took a strong hold on rings in the qualification by getting the highest score of 16.525. He shared the difficulty zenith of 7.3 with Jovtchev, but enjoyed more stable execution in the qualification.
In the all-around final, Chen managed to score 16.650 points in the specialty of rings after a crushing start on pommel horse.Due to his injuries in wrist, Chen felt pain on pommel horse and gave up the competition on the horizontal bar at last. "I save the energy for my rush to individual titles," said Chen after the all-around tournament.
The titles for men's team, women's team, men's all-around, pommel horse and men's floor exercise events have all gone to the hosts before the duel on Sunday.
(Xinhua News Agency August 18, 2008)