FIG
If they're honest about it, it never really occurred to the Chinese women's Tumbling team's mind that they wouldn't win the World team title Saturday evening at the 29th Trampoline Gymnastics World Championships in Sofia (BUL).
The deed done, lined up side by side with their arms around one another and the gold medals draped around their necks, Jia Fangfang, Chen Lingxi, Zhang Yuanyuan and Cai Qizi chattered and giggled between answering questions.
Did they expect to win the World title? "Yes," they all chorused happily, smiling and speaking as one. What was that like? "We were excited and very happy," added Zhang, who like Jia and Chen was part of the team that won the gold medal at the 2011 World Championships in Birmingham as well.
On the tumbling track, the Chinese women were all business and all domination, sailing to the women's title over Russia by nearly five points (104.400 to 99.600), a large margin in Gymnastics. The distance was partly due to the difficulty shown by Jia, the heavy favorite to defend the women's individual title she initially won two years ago as well. The 19-year-old was the only woman to do a full twisting double layout through to a double twisting double layout. Her reward: 36.100 points, the highest score of the women's competition.
Russia's Victoria Danilenko, Ekaterina Gaas and Anastasiia Isupova tumbled three solid lines for the silver (99.600), while Great Britain's Lucie Coleback, Rachael Lesche and Yasmin Taite turned in strong performances for the bronze (98.000).
2013-11-10