Artistic gymnastics: China's LIU repeats worlds defeat of ZANETTI (BRA) in rings five years on

WUHAN (CHN) - China's LIU Yang, the 2014 world champion in men's rings, and Arthur ZANETTI (BRA), whom he beat to the title, gave a repeat performance with a one-two finish on the penultimate day of artistic gymnastics at the Military World Games.

LIU scored 15.133 points to see off the 2012 Olympic champion by 0.433 points at Hubei Olympic Center Gymnasium on Friday, mirroring his victory on home soil in Nanning five years ago.

"I am happy to meet again. It's been some time since I last saw him in a competition," said LIU after his triumph.

The pair had not met since the Montreal 2017 world championships where LIU took bronze and ZANETTI finished seventh, and that was much too long as far the Chinese was concerned:

"He always motivates me to give my absolute best. Even though I was a bit tired he gave me some (extra) energy. Competing against him is always a pleasure. Today's result shows my potential for the upcoming competitions. My routine wasn't perfect, but I feel good and am ready for more as I am for Tokyo 2020."

ZANETTI's second prize in rings followed a bronze for him on floor exercise earlier in the day. "For rings I kind of knew I would end up with the silver. LIU Yang is really good. The competition was hard but I am happy with the silver," the Brazilian said.

"The Chinese gymnasts (in general) are really strong here. The sport is big here and obviously the Chinese are good at it too. They have great potential for the 2020 Olympics and we will try to get closer and closer to them."

The day's other two titles were also won by China, DENG Shudi taking gold on floor exercise as did ZOU Jingyuan on pommel horse.

Competition concludes on Saturday with the apparatus finals on vault, parallel bars and horizontal bar.

(Xinhua Info)