Chinese Yang Wei became the first back-to-back men's all-around
world champion in 81 years while United States newcomer Shawn
Johnson won the women's event at the Stuttgart gymnastics world
championships on Friday.
Yang missed his grip after a flip over the high bar in the final
exercise but still collected a total of 93.675 points for the gold
thanks to the edge that he built up through the first five
apparatuses.
Already having the 2005 Aarhus title, Yang became the first
gymnast after Petar Sumi of former Yugoslavia in 1926 to win men's
all-around for a straight second time at a world championships.
He finished 1.475 points ahead of runner-up Fabian Hambuechen of
Germany. The bronze medal went to Japanese Hisashi Mizutori in
91.400 after a dramatic final which featured quite a few flops and
trips.
Women's event was much more closer as the medals were only
decided in the last rotation.
The 15-year-old Johnson, who took the senior level only this
year, collected 61.875 points overall with remarkable stability to
win her second gold at Stuttgart.
The Iowa high school student just helped the US women team make
it top two days ago.
Steliana Nistor of Romania took the silver in 60.625 and
Brazilian Jade Barbosa and reigning champion Vanessa Ferrari of
Italy were joint third in 60.550.
"I'm so happy and so proud of myself," Johnson said. "I just, I
don't know. I'm overwhelmed with everything right now."
"I think I am still in a magical place, and it hasn't sunk in
yet.
"(After my floor routine), I just started crying and couldn't
stop. To get the (all-around) gold medal is an unreal feeling. It
is a dream come true."
Johnson was only fifth after two rotations and still trailed
Barbosa by 0.1 points in second heading into the final event of
floor.
After Barbosa fell on one of her tumbling passes, Johnson nailed
her floor exercise routine with a combination of difficult
acrobatic elements and expression. For it she received 15.425
points and was already the world champion although Nistor still had
to go.
Her compatriot Anastasia Liukin, however, had bad luck again for
a third successive year after she was denied the title in 2005 by
one thousandth points to teammate Chellsie Memmel, then again last
year when an ankle injury took her out of all but one event at
worlds in Denmark.
Liukin put in her usual graceful performance, but a drop off the
beam cost her chances for gold and she finished fifth.
"I'm not blaming anyone except myself," she said.
Yang, 27, continued the winning momentum from the previous night
when he led the Chinese team to win a third straight world title,
and wooed both the spectators and judges with a perfect combination
of difficulty and quality.
He scored the highest of the field on three apparatuses out of
six -- pommel horse, rings and parallel bars, and particularly
impressed through a gorgeous rings layout with A score reaching a
shock 7.4.
"I was still confident waiting for the final score after the
fall because I knew that I was leading quite big," said Yang,
adding an eighth major title to his belt including team golds.
"I had finished my job at that time anyway, nothing could
change.
"Nervous? Maybe, but it's not the reason for the fall. It's
normal in a gymnastics competition. You might lose or fall when you
relaxed even a hundredth of second and you don't know why."
Russian Maxim Deviatovski, who ranked second after four
rotations of six, injured his left foot in a drop off the parallel
bars and received only 3.725 points for an uncompleted routine.
He limped off the arena after the fall and then withdrew the
remaining apparatus of high bar.
Japanese Hiroyuki Tomita, one of the pre-competition favorites,
was a surprise 12th due to blunders from the very beginning.
The 2005 world champion had a gloomy start when he stumbled,
hands touching floor, in landing after his opening tumbling on
floor. But his mishap just began and a drop off the pommel horse
basically wipe off his chance for the title.
He was also a casualty on the high bar in the final rotation,
landing on his back with a thud after losing grip, but managed to
resume his maneuver to the cheers of spectators.
(Xinhua News Agency September 8, 2007)