Zou Jingyuan poses with his medal after winning the parallel bars title at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Liverpool, Britain, Nov. 6, 2022 (Xinhua/Li Ying)
China's Olympic champion Zou Jingyuan won the parallel bars at the 51st Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Liverpool on Sunday.
LIVERPOOL, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- China's Olympic champion Zou Jingyuan showed his dominance on the parallel bars by winning the event at the 51st Artistic Gymnastics World Championships here on Sunday.
Zou performed his routine in the final with an unparalleled difficulty score of 6.9 points and took the gold with 16.166 points.
Zou in action during the parallel bars final. (Xinhua/Li Ying)
Olympic runner-up Lukas Dauser of Germany settled for second place with 15.500 points, and the Philippines' Carlos Yulo was third with 15.366 points.
"At first, I just wanted to stick with the original routine with a difficulty score of 6.5 points and perform it perfectly," said Zou, "but then I decided to try the harder one to challenge myself."
"You could see that I was a little bit rushed and shaky, and there was a little pressure. But I am satisfied with my performance," he added.
Zou in action during the parallel bars final. (Xinhua/Li Ying)
In the men's vault, Armenian veteran Artur Davtyan dethroned Yulo to win the title.
22-year-old rising star Yulo led the final with 14.950 points until 30-year-old Davtyan staged two routines with more steady landings to take top spot with 15.050 points.
Three-time Olympian Igor Radivilov of Ukraine took the bronze medal in 14.733 points.
Japan's Hazuki Watanabe took gold in the women's beam after performing her routine solidly to finish top with 13.600 points.
Ellie Black of Canada followed behind with 13.566 points, while Watanabe's teammate Shoko Miyata was third on 13.533.
"At first, I was the team's reserve, but when there was an injury they changed things and I had the chance to come to the World Championships. That was my first surprise. Now I have a medal too. It is all a bit surprising," said Watanabe.
The home crowd roared with joy as Jessica Gadirova took the women's floor gold, while the nine-day competition concluded with Brody Malone of the U.S. grabbing the last gold on the horizontal bar.
The top-three finishing men's teams of China, Japan and Britain qualified for the 2024 Olympic Games, with the women's teams of the United States, Britain and Canada doing likewise. ■
