LONDON, Aug 7: Alexandra Raisman of the US closed the Olympic artistic gymnastics tournament on Tuesday by claiming gold in the women’s floor exercise, her third medal of the London Games.
Having already won gold with the US in the team final and secured a bronze medal on the balance beam earlier on Tuesday, Raisman prevailed on the floor with a routine that scored 15.600 points.
Romania’s Catalina Ponor finished second to partially atone for having missed out on a medal in the beam final, while Russia’s Aliya Mustafina claimed bronze to go with her individual all-around bronze and uneven bars gold.
Epke Zonderland of the Netherlands produced a spectacular horizontal high bar routine to claim gold in the men’s final and earn a standing ovation at the North Greenwich Arena.
Zonderland’s display gave him a huge score of 16.533, to leave Germany’s Fabian Hambuchen with the silver medal and defending champion Zou Kai of China with bronze.
It made him the Netherlands’ first Olympic gymnastics gold medallist since the Dutch women’s team prevailed in the team event on home soil in 1928.
China’s Deng Linlin upset team-mate Sui Lu to claim the gold medal in the women’s balance beam final.
Sui won the silver medal, with Raisman snatching the bronze medal from three-time champion Ponor following a judges’ inquiry.
The reigning world beam champion, Sui opened the final with a strong score of 15.500 but Deng bettered her mark by 0.100 points to leave her compatriot in tears on the sidelines.
Ponor, who won three golds at the 2004 Athens Games, initially finished in third with a score of 15.066.
Feng Zhe of China took the honours in the men’s parallel bars final to succeed his countryman Li Xiaopeng as Olympic champion.
Germany’s Marcel Nguyen came second, adding another silver medal to the one he won in the individual all-around final earlier in thecompetition, while Hamilton Sabot of France finished third.
Feng, parallel bars world champion in 2010, now has two gold medals at the London Games, having already played a part in China’s victory in the men’s team final.—AFP