LONDON — China won three more titles at the world gymnastics championships Sunday, giving them a total of six. That’s as many as the other 70 countries won — combined. Their total of nine medals was tops, too.
“Our team performed very well,” said Deng Linlin, who took the title on balance beam. “It’s perfect success.”
And it might just be a preview for the next big gymnastics meet in London, the 2012 Olympics, which will be held at the same O2 Arena.
Wang Guanyin won the gold on parallel bars, and Zou Kai added a world title to his Olympic gold medal on high bar.
Beth Tweddle gave the home crowd a thrill by winning gold on floor exercise, the second world title for Britain’s most beloved gymnast. Marian Dragulescu of Romania won the vault, his second gold medal in as many days.
The Americans won just one medal Sunday, a bronze on balance beam by Ivana Hong. They leave with five, all by the women, including a gold-silver finish in the all-around.
“I’m not upset at all,” said national champion Jon Horton, who struggled in the all-around and then fell off high bar Sunday.
“I’ll be better for it. There’s nothing like completely falling on your face at a meet, particularly one like this, to pick yourself up and go, ‘Holy cow.’ ”
China made no secret of wanting to win all the medals at the Beijing Games, and it came pretty darn close. The Chinese won both team titles, all but one of the men’s events and one of the women’s events.
But like most countries in the year after the Olympics, China is going through a transition. Though it brought three members of its Beijing women’s team, only two of the men were here, with the rest newcomers. With no team competition at this world championships, China didn’t enter anyone in the men’s all-around, preferring to see where the team’s youngsters might fit best when 2012 qualifying begins next year.
“The men’s task here is just to study and communicate and try to be familiar with the venue,” Deng said.
Wang is one of China’s newcomers, but he already has the winning tradition down. He held some of his handstands on the parallel bars for so long, art students could have sketched him.
His form was breathtaking, with perfectly pointed toes and ruler-straight legs, and he moved smoothly from one skill to another.
There was no jerking and hitching like most of the other gymnasts. And with a start value of 7.0, there was no way anyone was getting past him.
Likewise for Zou. His start value on the high bar was a whopping 7.50 — a full two-tenths higher than silver medalist Epke Zonderland. Get through the routine clean, and the gold medal was his. He launched himself high above the bar with ease, pulling off tricks that circus acrobats wouldn’t try. His only blemish was a low landing, forcing him to take a small hop forward. But he knew it wouldn’t cost him much, and he thrust his hands in the air, a smile crossing his face.
“It’s hard to compare. The Olympic gold medal, it’s more impressive,” Zou said. “But I’ve never got a world championship title, so it’s also important for me.”
