China's men slammed the door on the rest of the gymnastics world on Tuesday when they obliterated their rivals to pick up two more gold medals at the Olympics. On the final day of competition, Zou Kai became the most successful gymnast in Beijing when he scooped his third title with a high-flying performance on the horizontal bar. His triumph increased the host nation's gold medal haul in the sport to nine, easily eclipsing its stash of five won during the 1984 Los Angeles Games. Zou's success came hot on the heels of Li Xiaopeng's triumphant showing on the parallel bars. After wobbling his way to a bronze in Athens, Li wiped away four years of hurt with his free-flowing movement on the bars. The last competitor on the apparatus, Li keenly watched what his challengers would produce. That benchmark was set at 16.250 by South Korea's Yoo Won-chul in a contest littered with errors. As soon as the 27-year-old Li mounted the apparatus, Yoo must have known the gold was out of reach. Li executed a backward swinging somersault and seamlessly moved into a rigid handstand before sticking his dismount. Uzbekistan's Anton Fokin took the bronze. Li Shanshan had been tipped to keep up China's victory parade as she had been the top qualifier on the balance beam and she drew gasps from the 18,000 fans as she began her display by showing off a string of fast-paced backward flips. But within seconds the crowd was hushed into silence when she slipped off the 10cm-wide wood while attempting a full twisting backward flip. She hung on for dear life by clinging on to the beam from underneath the apparatus but had to let go, and with it her medal hopes also vanished. Her misfortune allowed American Shawn Johnson to finally lay her hands on an Olympic gold. The 16-year-old outshone rivals Nastia Liukin and Cheng Fei with her deft footwork to end a run of three silver-medal winning performances in Beijing. – Reuters __
