Athletics Day 1 Evening Session Review: Ups And Downs At The National Stadium

Diane Roy celebrates.

(BEIJING, September 8) -- Just like the morning session, the evening had 22 heats along with six finals which included the first track final of the Athletics competition. World and Paralympic records were set in the National Stadium and the Women's 5000m - T54 was marred by an accident.

Unfortunately for some participants of the Women's 5000m - T54 (wheelchair athletes with different levels of spinal cord injuries and amputations), a collision in the last lap, less than 100m from the finish line, caused six athletes to fall and abandon their race. The accident involved all three medalists from the Athens 2004 Paralympic Games, Wakako Tsuchida of Japan, Edith Hunkeler of Switzerland and Cheri Blauwet of the United States. Only five athletes finished the race and Diane Roy of Canada appeared to have taken the first Track gold medal in 11:54.03, setting a new Paralympic record. A close second was Shelly Woods of Great Britain with 11:54.29, while American Amanda McGrory came in third with 11:54.84. It was later announced that these results may not hold and the race is expected to be rescheduled on Tuesday.

Karim Betina of Algeria stole the show early in the Men's Shot Put - F32 (wheelchair athletes with different levels of cerebral palsy) when he broke the world record (9.92m) with just his second attempt (9.94m). It was just no stopping him after that as his throws kept improving and he landed the gold medal with a world record-breaking throw of 10.65m. Tunisia's Mourad Idoudi threw to a distance of 10.40m and picked up the silver, while third place went to Betina's teammate Mounir Bakiri with 9.37m.

China had to settle for fifth place in the Women's Long Jump - F42 (ambulant athletes with different levels of amputations and other disabilities including les autres) when Zhang Haiyuan, former world record holder, failed to repeat her winning performance of 2004 (Athens, Paralympics) and only managed a jump of 3.44m. Poland's Ewa Zielinska came in third with 3.62m, behind Annette Roozen of the Netherlands who secured the second spot with 3.63m. The gold medal went to Australian Christine Wolf who set a world record with her jump of 3.73m.

In the Men's Javelin - F35/36 (ambulant athletes with different levels of cerebral palsy), the clear favorite was China's Guo Wei. Cheered on by his home crowd, Guo Wei's first attempt at 54.92m broke his own world record in the F35 class and he did it again in his second throw with 56.07m which won him the top spot. Through the multi-classification event point system, Guo Wei was crowned gold medalist with 1283 points. In second place was Pawel Piotrowski of Poland who also got pass the old world record mark but his throw of 42.88m and 1158 point only earned him a Silver medal while Nicholas Newman of South Africa came in third with 42.48m and 1147 points.

Jackie Christiansen of Denmark won the gold and created a world record in the Men's Shot Put F44 (ambulant athletes with different levels of amputations and other disabilities including les autres). Christiansen blew away the competition with his throw of 17.89m and earned himself 1117 points. The second spot went to Australian Paul Raison with 15.83m and 988 points while Gerdan Fonseca of Cuba took bronze with 15.65m and 977 points.

Men's Discuss F33/34/52 (wheelchair athletes with different levels of cerebral palsy and different levels of spinal cord injuries and amputations) was the first final to begin and the last to end with a stellar display of strength and skill from all the athletes. In this multi-classification field event medals are awarded according to a point system. A new F52 world record (20.47m) ensured Aigars Apinis of Latvia the gold, with 1097 points. Chris Martin of Great Britain set the F33 Paralympic record with 28.37m (1074 points) and Roman Musil of the Czech Republic came in third with 27.11m (1026 points).

"Blade Runner" Oscar Pistorius competes at the Bird's Nest






Records were broken in some of the heats as well. In the Men's 100m - T11 heats, Lucas Prado of Brazil bettered his own world record of 11.26s when he sprinted to the finish line in a quick 11.19s, while Kurt Fearnley of Australia qualified for the finals of the Men's 5000m - T54 setting a Paralympic record of 10:13.21. South African Oscar Pistorius, better known as the "Blade Runner" also set a Paralympic record in the Men's 100m - T44 heats in 11.16s.

Chinese Lu Edges The Gold Medal At Men's Vault Final

Chinese Lu Edges The Gold Medal At Men's Vault

Gold medal winner Lu Bin at the awarding ceremony

(BEIJING, December 2) -- Lu Bin of China took the gold medal in the vault final with a total score of 16.525 points on Sunday evening at the Good Luck Beijing 2007 Gymnastics International Invitational Tournament.

Flavius Koczi of Romania earned the silver medal, and Makoto Okiguchi came in third.

Lu Bin won four gold medals in total at the gymnastics invitational for the pommel horse, still rings, vault, and men's team events.

Final action of Lu's landing

Top winners at the awarding ceremony

Bronze winner Japanese Makoto Okiguchi in action


Bronze winner Japanese Makoto Okiguchi in action


Bronze winner Japanese Makoto Okiguchi in action


Silver winner Flavius Koczi of Romania in action


Top gymnast in men's vault qualifications Chinese Liang Mingsheng fells down in final


Top three winners at the awarding ceremony

Chinese Lu Edges The Gold Medal At Men's Vault Final

China On Top At Gymnastics Worlds

China's Cheng Fei celebrates on the podium her gold medal won on the floor as her compatriot and gold medallist in the parallel bar event Yang Wei (L) looks on at the 39th Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Aarhus, Denmark, October 21, 2006

Aarhus, Denmark - Yang Wei and Cheng Fei claimed two more gold as China lay the groundwork for the 2008 Beijing Games by bringing their tally to an unprecedented eight titles on the final day of the world gymnastics championships.

No one could match the Chinese as the United States suffered their worst world showing since 1999, with Japan's Hiroyuki Tomita, the defending all-around champion, failing to lift his Olympic title-winning team.

As the new judging system made its debut for the first time at a global competition, three new country's won their first ever world titles.Fifteen-year-old Vanessa Ferrari won Italy's first women's gold in the all-around as Elizabeth Tweddle won Britain's first with her uneven bars success and Australia's Philippe Rizzo on the high bar.

But the stars of the championships were the Chinese, and in particular Yang and Cheng who wrapped up the competition by winning the parallel bars and floor respectively on Saturday.Between them they helped their country to six titles out of the 14 on offer during the week.

Yang, 26, was the most successful man, winning three gold. He helped China defend their men's team title ahead of Russia and Olympic champions Japan. And after having to settle for second best so often in individual events at worlds he took the all-around gold ahead of title-holder Tomita and Germany's Fabian Hambuechen.

"This is the best result for us in the history of gymnastics. I wouldn't say I'm surprised though," said Yang, the all-around silver medallist at the 2000 Olympics and 2003 world championships.

"I can only congratulate the team and hope we do as good as this in Beijing." Cheng, 18, closed her championship with an acrobatic floor routine which gave her a third title.

Despite failing to make the all-around final she defended her vault crown and helped China win their first women's team title at the expense of the injury-hit US defending champions with Russia finishing third. Chen Yibing, 22, won rings gold, as Xiao Qin, 21, successfully defended the pommel horse on Friday.

Romania, after a slow start to their campaign, were lifted to second on the medals table by veteran Marian Dragulescu's floor and vault gold.

The Romanians finished with four medals - two gold, a silver and a bronze. The US were seventh best with five silver and one bronze, just ahead of Japan with three medals - two silver and a bronze.

Their men's team had their worst ever showing, failing to qualify for the team final after finishing 13th in preliminaries, with their only medal a bronze won by Alexander Artemev on the pommel horse.

The US women, who at the 2005 worlds, won nine medals - four gold, four silver and one bronze - were hit by injuries.

Chellsie Memmel was forced to withdraw from her all-around title defence because of a shoulder injury, while Anastasia Liukin was limited to the team event and her uneven bars defence.

Liukin was shocked by Tweddle on that apparatus and took silver, with Alicia Sacramone, failing to defend her floor title, and winning silver on the vault behind Cheng.

Again it was Cheng who ended the final US title hope on the floor. She scored 15.875 to push all-around silver medallist Jana Bieger (15.550) into silver medal position. "I did the best I could," said Bieger, the most successful American after also winning silver in the all-around and team.

Ferrari, who single-handedly lifted Italy to fourth on the medals table, took her second bronze Saturday a day after her third on the uneven bars. But she missed out on a medal on the beam as, like in the all-around final, she fell from that apparatus to finish sixth in an event won by Ukraine's Iryna Krasnianska.

Australia were third best as a result of 25-year-old Rizzo's gold and Prashanth Sellathurai's pommel horse silver on Friday. Rizzo scored 16.125 to push defending champion Aljaz Pegan of Slovenia into silver-medal position, 15.900, with Greece's Vlasios Maras taking bronze.

Earlier Yang took parallel bars gold ahead of Tomita, who had to settle for joint silver with South Korea's Yoo Won Chul. Tomita also finished second in the all-around after losing his title to Yang.

Dragulescu, meanwhile, claimed his sixth world gold. A day after winning his third world floor title the 26-year-old from Bucharest took his third vault gold with a combined 16.487 after two jumps. Dimitri Kaspiarovich of Belarus took silver (16.312) with Hambuechen taking bronze