Team China

The Chinese men’s program sent a stronger team to the Asian Games than to world championships this year, with the goal of winning gold at home in Hangzhou the ultimate priority.

Headlined by star all-arounder and world champion Zhang Boheng alongside a number of Olympic medalists, the team was clearly a massive step ahead the rest of the teams here, so it was no surprise to see them reach the top of the podium by nearly four points, earning a 262.025 to defeat a strong, if not star-powered, Japan in second with a 258.628.

Zhang was just about at his best here, earning an 88.564 – just a tenth shy of the top all-around score of the year – and qualifying to a number of apparatus finals, with his top scores coming on parallel bars with a 15.466 and floor with a 14.933, with his lowest a 14.266 on high bar.

Also representing China in the all-around was rings standout Lan Xingyu, who earned an 81.165 with his rings routine topping the qualifications list, earning a 14.966, while he also performed well on vault, parallel bars, and high bar. Zou Jingyuan was exactly what you’d expect on parallel bars, earning a massive 15.933 thanks to his near-perfect execution (he scored a 9.433 there!), and he will also be in the rings final, having earned a 14.8, while Lin Chaopan made the floor and high bar finals, and Xiao Ruoteng made the pommel horse and high bar finals, with both veterans performing well overall.

Even though Japan technically sent a “B team” to the Asian Games – at least based on how the scores and rankings looked at national competitions this year – it was still a pretty fantastic team, and showed a lot of strength from its all-around performances, with the relatively inexperienced Kawakami Shohei qualifying second with an 84.432, while the young Olympian Kitazono Takeru qualified in third with an 83.231.

Ultimately, it was China’s strengths on rings and parallel bars that gave them the edge, with the Japanese men a bit further behind on both, but otherwise both teams were pretty fairly well matched, once again showing just how much depth Japan has in its arsenal, given that all four of its top all-arounders from this season are at worlds.

The Tanigawa brothers were outstanding here, with Wataru not scoring below a 14.133 on any of his five events and adding a 15.233 to the team’s vault total, while Kakeru brought in a 14.9 on parallel bars and a 14.533 on high bar. Finally, there was pommel horse standout Tsumura Ryota, who contributed scores on three events, including a 14.9 on his key event, putting him in third going into the apparatus final.

While no other teams showed that they could contend against the Asian gymnastics superpowers, there was a nice battle for bronze between Taiwan, which ultimately took the medal with a 244.760, and South Korea, sitting in fourth place less than three tenths behind with a 244.495.

Taiwan missed out on qualifying a team to worlds this year, but qualified the maximum number of five individual spots for Antwerp, with four of those athletes competing here, including Lee Chih-Kai, who leads the pommel horse qualifications with a 15.066 ahead of teammate Shiao Yu-Jan with a 15.000. The other worlds competitors include Yeh Cheng – the sole all-around competitor here who qualified in seventh place with a 78.265 – and Lin Guan-Yi – who struggled on p-bars and high bar, two of his specialty events, but qualified in fifth to the rings final with a 14.466.

Though he won’t be at worlds, it was great to get a look at Huang Yen-Chang, who had no prior major international experience prior to this meet, but looked great on the five apparatuses he performed, including finishing 15th on p-bars with a 13.566, 11th on floor with a 13.533, and 10th on high bar with a 13.233, the top for Taiwan to qualify into the final.

With South Korea’s core competitors from this quad all at worlds hoping to contend for a team spot for Paris, though there were still a number of well-known gymnasts on the roster here, including Olympians Kim Hansol and Shin Jeahwan and worlds veterans Bae Garam and Yun Jinseong. Rings was a bit of a sore spot for this team, and held them back from defeating Taiwan, but the fact that Taiwan came in with a massive pommel horse advantage and South Korea still got so close is a massive testament to this team’s overall balance, with especially strong performances on floor, p-bars, and high bar.

Yun topped the all-around standings for the team, qualifying in fourth with an 81.265, ahead of Bae with a 79.665 for sixth place. Kim looked strong throughout, putting up the team’s best on floor with a 14.433 to qualify third into the final, while specialist Shin just missed the floor final, though qualified fourth on vault with a 14.299 average. Jeon Yoseop at 31 doesn’t have a bunch of international experience, but he did really well here to contribute a 14.033 on pommels, the team’s best which allowed him to qualify into the final in the very last spot, and he also did good work on p-bars and high bar.

Rounding out the team competition were Uzbekistan in fifth with a 234.461, Kazakhstan in sixth with a 229.627, Thailand in seventh with a 217.362, Vietnam in eighth with a 212.526, North Korea in ninth with a 188.928, and Iran in 10th with a 178.828.

Most notable within these programs is Nariman Kurbanov of Kazakhstan, who qualified fourth into the pommel horse final with a 14.566. Like Lee, he is also expected to compete at worlds this coming weekend, so both are now set to compete in the pommels final here on Thursday, fly to Belgium on Friday, and then compete in worlds qualifications over the weekend. It’s a bummer that Ahmad Abu Al Soud of Jordan had a fall to finish 18th and miss qualifying to the apparatus here, but I hope that means he’ll be able to fly out to Belgium early and get in some training time before competing halfway around the world.

Other standouts include Tikumporn Surintornta of Thailand, who qualified into the floor final in fourth place with a 14.4 and into the vault final in fifth place with a 14.283 average, along with a bunch of additional vault gymnasts, including Mahdi Olfati of Iran (second with a 14.566), Ng Ka Ki of Hong Kong (third with a 14.349), Aimy Muhammad Sharul of Malaysia (sixth with a 14.216), Trinh Hai Khang of Vietnam (seventh with a 14.166), and Asadbek Azamov of Uzbekistan (eighth with a 14.049).

I also need to talk about the North Koreans. With only three athletes here, they didn’t have enough to contend in the team competition, especially since two of the three were specialists, with Ri Wi Chol the only real all-arounder (he qualified to the final in ninth place with a 75.831). The team tried to piece together a full team program, though ended up fielding two routines on pommel horse and counted a number of 10.0-range scores elsewhere, but while their team ranking suffered, they still earned a couple apparatus final placements, including Ri on parallel bars and Jong Ryong Il on rings.

Please see below for a full list of the team rankings, as well as the qualifiers into each individual final.

Team Final Standings

1. China 262.025
2. Japan 258.628
3. Taiwan 244.760
4. South Korea 244.495
5. Uzbekistan 234.461
6. Kazakhstan 229.627
7. Thailand 217.362
8. Vietnam 212.526
9. North Korea 188.928
10. Iran 178.828

All-Around Qualifiers

1. Zhang Boheng, China, 88.564
2. Kawakami Shohei, Japan, 84.432
3. Kitazono Takeru, Japan, 83.231
4. Yun Jinseong, South Korea, 81.265
5. Lan Xingyu, China, 81.165
6. Bae Garam, South Korea, 79.665
7. Yeh Cheng, Taiwan, 78.265
8. Ravshan Kamiljanov, Uzbekistan, 76.365
9. Ri Wi Chol, North Korea, 75.831
10. Mohammadreza Khosronezhad, Iran, 75.764
11. Roman Mamenov, Kazakhstan, 75.432
12. Mohammadreza Hamidi, Iran, 74.798
13. Alisher Toibazarov, Kazakhstan, 73.897
14. Pak Song Hyok, North Korea, 71.965
15. Asadbek Azamov, Uzbekistan, 71.763
16. Suphacheep Baobenmad, Thailand, 71.298
17. Nadila Nethviru Ambuldeniyage, Sri Lanka, 69.964
18. Pham Phuoc Hieu, Vietnam, 66.931
19. Ittrit Kumsiriratn, Thailand, 66.364

Floor Qualifiers

1. Zhang Boheng, China, 14.933
2. Kawakami Shohei, Japan, 14.466
3. Kim Hansol, South Korea, 14.433
4. Tikumporn Surintornta, Thailand, 14.400
5. Tanigawa Wataru, Japan, 14.133
7. Trinh Hai Khang, Vietnam, 13.966
8. Lin Chaopan, China, 13.966
9. Khumoyun Islomov, Uzbekistan, 13.900

R1. Huang Yen-Chang, Taiwan, 13.533
R2. Yun Jinseong, South Korea, 13.533
R3. Lin Guan-Yi, South Korea, 13.533

Pommel Horse Qualifiers

1. Lee Chih-Kai, Taiwan, 15.066
2. Shiao Yu-Jan, Taiwan, 15.000
3. Tsumura Ryota, Japan, 14.900
4. Nariman Kurbanov, Kazakhstan, 14.566
5. Xiao Ruoteng, China, 14.466
6. Zhang Boheng, China, 14.333
7. Dang Ngoc Xuan Thien, Vietnam, 14.233
8. Jeon Yoseop, South Korea, 14.033

R1. Kawakami Shohei, Japan, 14.000
R2. Ravshan Kamiljanov, Uzbekistan, 13.633
R3. Bae Garam, South Korea, 13.400

Rings Qualifiers

1. Lan Xingyu, China, 14.966
2. Zou Jingyuan, China, 14.800
4. Nguyen Van Khanh Phong, Vietnam, 14.566
5. Lin Guan-Yi, Taiwan, 14.466
6. Tanigawa Wataru, Japan, 14.433
7. Jong Ryong Il, North Korea, 14.433
8. Ng Kiu Chung, Hong Kong, 14.033
9. Kitazono Takeru, Japan, 13.666

R1. Pak Song Hyok, North Korea, 13.500
R2. Mahdi Ahmad Kohani, Iran, 13.400
R3. Akhrorkhon Temirkhonov, Uzbekistan, 13.366

Vault Qualifiers

1. Tanigawa Wataru, Japan, 15.033
2. Mahdi Olfati, Iran, 14.566
3. Ng Ka Ki, Hong Kong, 14.349
4. Shin Jeahwan, South Korea, 14.299
5. Tikumporn Surintornta, Thailand, 14.283
6. Aimy Muhammad Sharul, Malaysia, 14.216
7. Trinh Hai Khang, Vietnam, 14.166
8. Asadbek Azamov, Uzbekistan, 14.049

R1. Assan Salimov, Kazakhstan, 14.033
R2. Miguel Besana, Philippines, 14.033
R3. Khumoyun Islomov, Uzbekistan, 14.000

Parallel Bars Qualifiers

1. Zou Jingyuan, China, 15.933
2. Zhang Boheng, China, 15.466
3. Kitazono Takeru, Japan, 15.133
4. Tanigawa Kakeru, Japan, 14.900
8. Ri Wi Chol, North Korea, 14.433
9. Bae Garam, South Korea, 14.133
10. Yun Jinseong, South Korea, 14.133
14. Lee Chih-Kai, Taiwan, 13.733

R1. Huang Yen-Chang, Taiwan, 13.566
R2. Le Thanh Tung, Vietnam, 13.566
R3. Mohammadreza Khosronezhad, Iran, 13.466

High Bar Qualifiers

1. Tanigawa Kakeru, Japan, 14.533
2. Lin Chaopan, China, 14.466
3. Xiao Ruoteng, China, 14.266
5. Tanigawa Wataru, Japan, 14.233
7. Bae Garam, South Korea, 13.400
9. Yun Jinseong, South Korea, 13.300
10. Huang Yen-Chang, Taiwan, 13.233
13. Le Thanh Tung, Vietnam, 12.733

R1. Mohammadreza Hamidi, Iran, 12.666
R2. Weerapat Chuaisom, Thailand, 12.466
R3. Lee Chih-Kai, Taiwan, 12.433

Article by Lauren Hopkins