Chinese gymnasts win three gold medals in apparatus

Chinese gymnasts won three out of five gold medals in the first day of apparatus finals at the Asian Games here on Wednesday. The other two went to Japan and DPR Korea.

Zou Kai from China, with five Olympic gold medals, won the gold medal in men's floor exercise with unmatched difficulty and perfect execution. He took 15.533 points, 0.233 points ahead of his teammate Huang Yuguo who finished second.

"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's hard for me to make achievement 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, 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 teammates 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 she is quite good at.

DPR Korea's Kang Yongmi ranked the third place in uneven bars, the silver and bronze medals of rings went to Japan's Kazuyuki Takeda and Vietnam's Dang Nam.

Influenced more or less by the foot injury during the training, the 39-year-old legendary gymnast Oksana Chusovitina failed to beat DPK Korea's Hong Un-jong, who grabbed the women's vault gold from her at Beijing Olympics. The bronze medal went to Vietnam's Phan Thi Ha Thanh.

"I feel good but tired after today's competition," Chusovitina said. "Overall I am happy with the result."

"I hope to make my seventh Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, and seven is my favorite number," she said and smiled. "Age is just a number and I keep doing it not for a living but because I love the sports. When I come to the podium I feel like a fish in the water."

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.