China Claims Silver and Bronze on Balance Beam at Gymnastics

Gold medalist Simone Biles (C) of the United States, silver medalist Liu Tingting (L) of China, bronze medalist Li Shijia of China pose for photos at the awarding ceremony after the Women's Balance Beam Final of the 2019 FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany, October 13, 2019. [Xinhua]

Chinese gymnasts Liu Tingting and Li Shijia added another silver and bronze medal to China's overall three silver and two bronze medals here on Sunday at the 2019 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships.

The Chinese performers crossed the line on the last day of competition on the balance beam behind US superstar Simone Biles (15.066 points) with Liu at 14.443 and Li at 14.300.

The Chinese 2019 World's team collected silver at the women's all-around (Tang Xijing), the beam, and in the men's team final aside of bronze on the beam and men's floor (Xiao Ruoteng).

Sunday's medals are a poor showing compared to last year's competition. China has four gold medals, one silver, and one bronze.

Liu admitted she needs to be more relaxed to perform better.

"I'm much better than a few days ago when I lost on bars in the team final, and we did not stand on the podium. I hope we can stand on the podium next year in Tokyo," Liu commented.

She had been "through lots of things at this championship, and the biggest thing for me is that I had learned how to face the challenges, difficulties, and failures, and how to solve the problems."

Li seems to be developing after bagging a medal at her first Worlds.

"I believe it's good, but not good enough. There're still lots of things to be improved. I don't have many flying moves to win more points. Hopefully, I'll have the chance to compete in Tokyo with more difficult moves and to win better results," Li emphasized.

The men's parallel bars final went to Britain's Joe Fraser (15.000) in a surprise result. Chinese performer Xiao Ruoteng (14.966) narrowly missed bronze ending up fourth due to a lower figure in executing points. Sun Wei finished 6th with 14.466.

Russians Nikita Nagornyy (14.966) and Artur Dalaloyan (14.933) finished one-two in the men's vault final to both win their third medals of the meet.

Brazil's Arthur Nory Mariano took the high bar gold with Chinese Lin Chaopan on position six (14.033).

By winning the balance beam gold U.S. superstar Simone Biles (15.066) became the most decorated gymnast, male or female, in the history of the World Championships with her 24th Worlds medal after adding another gold later at the floor (15.133), her 25th gold. 

(Source: Xinhua)