China's male gymnasts pulled off a historic victory by landing their first ever Olympic team gold at the Sydney SuperDome Monday evening as defending champions Russia stumbled and had to settle for the bronze medal.
China led from beginning to end and earned a total of 231.919, 1.613 points clear of the silver medalists Ukraine. Russia, who finished atop in the qualifiers, only managed 230.019.
"That's a dream comes true," said an excited head coach Huang Yubin. "We've been searching after this Olympic team gold for several generations, and not until today does it materialise."
"We've won the golds in the World Championships and World Cups, and we took the Olympic individual titles too. But the team gold had been remaining elusive until today. We're happy that we finally made it as we won't want to carry this dream over to the next millennium."
The Chinese team took the initiative after the first rotation and has never looked back. Only a slight slip on the horizontal bar by Huang Xu and an ankle injury to Xiao Junfeng, which made him unable to complete in two routines, blemished China's performance.
China's men gymnasts outscored their opponents on all but one of the six apparatuses during the final, underlining their phenomenal strength in depth.
"I was not nervous at all," Zheng Lihui said. "I have full confidence in myself and my teammates. I know we are the strongest. "
Consistency and depth were the keys to the Chinese men's victory. When their Russian arch rivals were faltering in their opening routine of the horizontal bar, the Chinese men just kept piling up points. With the exception of Xiao Junfeng's two botched efforts on the pommel horse and rings, the Chinese had no major mistakes. They held on their nerves not to repeat any errors which costed them the top qualifying berth two days ago.
"We're lucky that the mistakes happened in the qualifications but not the final. In fact, after Saturday's mistakes, we're even more determined to bring home the gold medal," Huang said.
Though four-time consecutive world champions, China has never won the Olympic team title. The gymnastic powerhouse claimed the silvers four years ago in Atlanta, Barcelona in 1992 and in Los Angeles in 1984.
Their Olympic nemeses Russia has won six gold medals in the Olympic history including the last two where China was pushed into second place.
But the day's individual top scorer was Russia's Alexei Nemov, who accumulated 58.423 points and put himself in the pole position to take the all-around title as well as five apparatus titles.
Top scorer for China's team was Yang Wei with 58.048, and Li Xiaopeng's parallel bars routine received a 9.775, a joint-top scorer with Nemov on the apparatus.
"My next aim is to win the parallel and floor golds, and I'm sure I'll do them," an all-smile Li said.
(Xinhua)
