Fan Ye and Lu Bo Win Chinese Games (16th October, 2005)

World balance beam champion Fan Ye won the all around title ahead of her Olympic teammates Cheng Fei and Zhang Nan at the prestigious 10th Chinese National Games in Nanjing.(13th - 15th October).

Fan Ye overcame a low 9.184 on vault with strong scores of 9.700 on asymmetric bars, 9.787 on beam and 9.684 on floor. Cheng performed solidly on all pieces but only managed 9.100 on asymmetric bars, her weakest event. Zhang Yufei, who qualified first after the team competition, fell off beam to finish fifth.

Coached by Liu Guicheng and He Hua in Beijing, Fan Ye admires fellow Chinese gymnast Liu Xuan and Russian Gymnast Svetlana Khorkina for their longeveity. Fan Ye is best known for her work on beam having won the 2003 World title. Her current goals include defending her beam World title next month in Melbourne. After retirement she plans to attend college and major in management.

Lu Bo made his name by defeating Athens Olympic gymnast Yang Wei to snatch the men’s gymnastics all around gold medal. Defending champion Yang, who was among top favourites for the title, suffered a stumbling start on floor when he committed major errors in almost all his tumbling series and scored only 8.667.