Published: Sep 25, 2014, 12:43 AM (IST)
Edited: Sep 25, 2014, 12:45 AM (IST)
Sep 24, 2014
Chinese gymnasts won three out of five gold medals on the first day of apparatus finals at the Asian Games here on Wednesday. The other two went to Japan and North Korea.
Five-time Olympic champion Zou Kai from China won the gold medal in men’s floor exercise with perfect execution. He took 15.533 points, 0.233 points ahead of his team mate Huang Yuguo who finished second, reported Xinhua.
“I’m not very satisfied with my performance today,” said Zou who won the event both at Beijing and London Olympics. “I could have done better, but I’m a little bit nervous. Whatever, I managed to nail it and I shouldn’t ask for more.”
“I know it will be hard for me at Rio. I feel the time for preparation is not enough,” said Zou, who didn’t train regularly until the second half of this year as he got married last November. “But I think the obstacles can make me stronger.”
“Since I decided to hang on, I need to be ambitious,” said the most prolific Chinese Olympian. “I’m looking forward to winning the sixth or even the seventh Olympic gold medal.”
Japan’s Yuya Kamoto, who had already pocketed two gold medals in team event and all-around, added a bronze medal with 14.933 points. “I’m happy to have won the medal in the floor final, because I hadn’t aimed to win in floor,” he said.
Zou’s team mates Yao Jinnan and Liao Junlin, added two gold medals in uneven bars and rings. Another Chinese Huang Huidan, the uneven bars champion in 2013 worlds, gained a silver medal in the event while North Korea’s Kang Yongmi got the bronze. The silver and bronze medals of rings went to Japan’s Kazuyuki Takeda and Vietnam’s Dang Nam.
On men’s pommel horse, Japan’s Masayoshi Yamamoto won the gold. Abdulla Azimov from Uzbekistan and Park Minsoo from South Korea took the silver and bronze medals. The rest five apparatus finals including men’s vault, parallel bars, horizontal bar and women’s beam and floor exercise will begin on Thursday.
Catch complete coverage of Asian Games 2014 here
