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Games-Gymnastics-Chinese dedicate gold to paralysed team mate
1998-12-08
BANGKOK - China's pint-sized women gymnasts waltzed away with the Asian games team gold on Tuesday and immediately dedicated the medal to paralyzed team mate San Lan. The golden girls racked up a giant score of 154.174, finishing with a 9.800 from Bi Wenjing and a stunning 9.825 from Ling Jie on the uneven bars. Silver medallists Japan were far behind on 146.812 after coming unstuck on the balance beam where three of their gymnasts took tumbles. Kazakhstan took the bronze with 144.624 points. There was sadness in the Chinese win because San Lan, would have been joining the celebrations, lies paralysed from the mid-chest down after a fall from the vault in warm-ups at the Goodwill Games in New York in July. ``All the team care very much about San Lan,'' said coach Lu Shanzhen. ``Today we have the gold and we want to dedicate that to her.'' Lu was not modest in describing his team's win. Asked if it was all too easy, Lu replied:''In this team competition, there is no competition.'' The squad got off to a flying start on the balance beam with an assertive 9.725 from Bi Wenjing followed by a stunning 9.775 from team mate Meng Feng. The two 17-year-olds are veterans of top class competitions and had wowed the judges at last year's World Championships in Lausanne, Switzerland. High scores continued unabated with a 9.850 from Liu Xuan on beam, bringing China at the end of the first discipline a full two points in front of rivals Japan. Sixteen-year-old Ling Jie charmed the crowd with a jaunty floor exercise, pulling in a 9.800 which Meng Feng, a favourite for the individual gold, followed with a 9.700. The team routinely executed clean landings and crisp moves, while stumbles and slips carried on around them. North Korea's Kang Sun-Young shot clean over the vault without making contact, earning a miserable score while team mate So Jong-ok suffered a nasty fall on the uneven bars. Lu expects a sweep of golds in the individual all-around event and the apparatus rounds, but anticipates meeting resistance from Japan and Kazakhstan on vault and floor. [Reuters]
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