London: Feng Zhe showed off his mastery of the parallel bars to seize the Olympic gold medal for China on Tuesday.
Feng produced a solid swinging exhibition incorporating a number of impressive somersaults, twists and handstands to earn 15.966 as all of his main rivals fluffed their routines.
Feng, the 2010 world champion, surpassed Germany’s Marcel Nguyen by 0.166 of a point while Frenchman Hamilton Sabot picked up a surprise bronze.
Brothers Kazuhito and Yusuke Tanaka had raised the possibility of completing a Japanese one-two after earning the top two qualifying scores, but both wobbled and wavered across the bars on Tuesday and left empty-handed after finishing fourth and seventh respectively.
An hour later, China’s Deng Linlin beat her compatriot Sui Lu, the world champion, to the balance beam title on the final day of artistic gymnastics.
Deng, herself world champion on the apparatus in 2009, gave China their fourth gymnastics gold medal of the Games.
Sui, competing first, pulled off a difficult routine but cried after Deng surpassed her by 0.1 points with a score of 15.600.
American Aly Raisman snatched the bronze medal from 2004 champion Catalina Ponor of Romania on a tiebreak after the judges increased the difficulty element of her score following a review requested by the US team.
