Liu, Chinese Men Win Asian Championships
The Chinese men easily captured the team and all-around title as competition began Sunday at the 5th Asian Championships in Putian, China, where the North Korean team finally resurfaced after a two-year international ban.
Men's all-around medalists Zhou, Liu and Ko
The young Chinese team made a few mistakes but still won the team title by nearly 15 points, earning 361.50 to Japan's 346.40. Japan, North Korea and South Korea battled for the silver and bronze. In the end, Japan edged North Korea by just 0.1 and South Korea by 0.3 to take the silver medal.
Liu Rongbing, 20, topped teammates Zhou Shixiong and Lin Chaopan with less than a one-point margin to win the all-around title. Liu, the 2012 Pacific Rim pommel horse champion, also topped pommel horse and high bar qualifications.
The Chinese earned the three-highest scores, but the two-per-country rule meant the all-around bronze went to South Korea's Ko Ye-Darm instead of Lin.
Outside of the host team's dominance, the biggest buzz in Putian was the return of North Korea following a two-year ban by the International Gymnastics Federation. In 2010, the FIG following the expiration of the two-year suspension the FIG handed down in 2010 after accusing the federation of falsifying the age of gymnast Hong Su Jong at several competitions.
North Korea sent full teams to Putian including 2008 Olympic vault champion Hong Un Jong and vault specialist Ri Se Gwang. The 27-year-old Ri is still able to stand up his namesake vaults (Tsukahara full-in) and a piked Dragulescu (double pike front with half twist), both of 7.2 Difficulty scores and easily topped vault qualification with a wide margin.
The legendary Pae Gil Sue, world and Olympic champion on pommel horse, traveled to Putian as team manager.
Japan and South Korea sent younger teams to this meet than China did. Japanese supertwister Kenzo Shirai, 16, led floor qualifications with a 6.7 D score, followed by Korean national high school champion, 17-year-old Lee Jun-Ho.
China's Zhou Shixiong was first in parallel bars qualification with a 7.1 D score/9.1 Execution score (peach full with extra quarter turn to the outside rail; stutz, peach full to giant to peach half; giant full at end to Tippelt; uprise to manna to double front-half dismount). Zhou is a graduate of Li Ning's Gymnastics Academy, the only private gymnastics school at elite level in China. First on rings was Yang Shengchao of China.
Competition continues Monday in Putian with the women's team and all-around events.
