China backslides, still leads with seven golds at Asiad

Gymnastics powerhouse China suffered a downturn after collecting seven gold medals against 13 in Guangzhou four years ago, but still strong enough to lead the medal tally at the 17th Asian Games in Incheon.

China won two golds in the last day artistic gymnastics actions on Thursday to lift its total to seven. Japan ranked second with four gold medals and DPR Korea was in the third place with two. Hong Kong of China gained their first Asiad gold medal in gymnastics.

Five-time Olympic champion Zou Kai earned the top scores in men's floor exercise and horizontal bar. His teammate Liao Junlin contributed a gold medal in rings.

Japanese male gymnasts swept four titles. In team event, they broke China's 36-year-domination at the Asian Games. Both Japan and China did not send their top gymnasts to Incheon as they are tuning up for for October's World Championships in Nanning, China.

Japan's Yuya Kamoto won two more gold medals in all-around and parallel bars. Masayoshi Yamamoto claimed the title of pommel horse.

"Generally speaking we had some rewards," said Ye Zhennan, China's gymnastics team manager. "But we also found drawbacks, especially the men's team."

China's slump in men's events exposed the powerhouse's situation of temporary shortage of talented gymnasts as the old ones have retired and rookies failed to fill up the void.

"In China, the gymnastics population is much smaller than that in Japan," said Ye. "We have only about 3,000 registered gymnasts, and in comparison Japan has lots of gymnastics clubs with many talents."

"I think many sports including gymnastics should be introduced to schools," he added, "as well as strengthening youngsters' physiques, we can select gifted ones."

"Some of our young athletes did not perform to their best ability," said Zou. "Japan did better in execution quality than us, and we should learn from them."

China's Yao Jinnan was the biggest winner who swept four gold medals in women's team event, all-around, floor exercise and uneven bars.

"Winning four golds at the Asian Games will boost my confidence, and it is good for me to compete in the World Championships (next month)," said the 19-year-old Olympian.

DPK Korea's Beijing Olympic champion Hong Un-jong kept competitive as she clinched the title in the women's vault, followed by the 39-year-old legendary gymnast Oksana Chusovitina who represented her home country Uzbekistan instead of Germany after the 2012 London Olympics.

Chusovitina, who has competed in six Olympic Games, said she wanted to make her seventh Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro two years later.

"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," she said.

Another DRP Korea's gymnast Kim Unhyang claimed the beam title.

Shek Waihung turned out to be a dark horse in the men's vault when he upset Olympic champion Yang Hakseon of South Korea to take the title. It's the first ever gymnastics gold at the Asian Games for Hong Kong, China.

"I feel very excited and happy because I didn't expect to get a gold medal," Shek said. "I felt that I had nothing to lose since there were many other great athletes here so I just tried my best."

The hosts won two silver and four bronze medals.