PARIS: Liu Yang clinched China's first men's gymnastics gold of the Paris Olympics on Sunday, delivering a formidable display of strength and skill to retain the rings title he won in Tokyo.
Liu, a two-time world champion on the apparatus, scored 15.300 points to lead a Chinese one-two ahead of silver medallist Zou Jingyuan, with Greece's 2016 Olympic champion Eleftherios Petrounias taking bronze.
Known for his strength elements, Liu didn't disappoint, with the crowd at Bercy Arena applauding as gave a little lift of his chin during his iron cross.
A small hop on his double-somersault, double-twist dismount proved immaterial as Liu seized the lead from Zou, who had opened the competition with a routine that garnered 15.233 points.
Petrounias – who added bronze in Tokyo to the gold he won in Rio – put himself in bronze medal position with a score of 15.100 on the third routine of the day.
That proved enough to make the podium as France's Samir Ait Said came up just short in his quest for a medal to mark his return from a horrific broken leg suffered in vault qualifying in Rio de Janeiro.
Greeted by a massive ovation and cheered throughout his routine, Ait Said scored 15.000 points to finish just out of the medals.
The golden breakthrough for China comes after they agonisingly settled for silver in the team event, where Japan took advantage of China's late miscues to grab the gold on the final apparatus.
Japan's Shinnosuke Oka then beat Zhang Boheng and Xiao Ruoteng to gold in the all-around.
China were shut out of the medals entirely in pommel horse and men's floor exercise on Saturday. - AFP