On April 26, the 2024 Gymnastics National Championships and Paris Olympic Trials and the 15th National Games Test Match continued to be held at the Sports Center of Zhaoqing New District, Guangdong.
Group photo of the champion, runner-up and third runner-up
In the previous qualifying round, Shi Cong, Zhang Boheng, and Xiao Ruoteng ranked first, second and third respectively, but Shi Cong's lead was not unsurpassable, and his lead over Zhang Boheng and Xiao Ruoteng was only 1.050 points and 1.700 points respectively. But in the finals, the gap of less than two points has become an insurmountable "moat" between the three, after Zhang Boheng withdrew, the final essentially became a duel between Shi Cong and Xiao Ruoteng, but in the competition of all six events, no matter how fierce Xiao Ruoteng's momentum of catching up, Shi Cong always maintained a slight advantage with stable play. In the end, Shi Cong won the men's individual all-around championship with a slight advantage of 0.350 points. However, since the qualification quota for the men's individual all-around gymnastics at the Paris Olympics must meet both the conditions of winning the top three in the individual all-around competition at the 2022 or 2023 World Gymnastics Championships and winning the championship in the individual all-around event at this National Championships, and Shi Cong only ranked sixth in the men's individual all-around final at the 2023 Antwerp Gymnastics World Championships, the national men's gymnastics team's individual all-around quota for the Paris Olympics has not yet been generated.
Satoshi before the pommel horse event
"Today, except for the first event (floor exercise) where I made some mistakes, the rest of the events were completed very smoothly, and I was very excited after the final horizontal bar landed, after all, this is my first individual all-around championship championship, which is a great motivation for me. Shi Cong told the Yangcheng Evening News reporter that during the next preparation period, he will focus on strengthening the practice of the vault event, and other projects will also work hard to pick out the details.
In this event men's individual all-around competition, Shi Cong, Xiao Ruoteng, Zhang Boheng of the national team members of the duel is the biggest highlight of the game, talking about the healthy competition between the members of the national team, Shi Cong said that he and the old players have been training together very early, the atmosphere in the team has always been fierce competition on the field, harmony and mutual assistance off the field, he especially talked about his final opponent Xiao Ruoteng: "Brother Xiao in the back against me to strive for better, which gave me a lot of competitive motivation." ”
Xiao Ruoteng fixes the protective gear before the horizontal bar event
The Paris Olympics is the second Olympic cycle of the national team's "big brother" Xiao Ruoteng's career, in Tokyo three years ago, the 25-year-old "all-around king" Xiao Ruoteng played with an injury, he made zero mistakes in the men's individual all-around final, but because he did not signal to the referee after the end of the final parallel bars event, the total score was deducted 0.3 points, and he lost to Japan's Qiao Daihui. After the final ranking came out, Xiao Ruoteng, who was ranked second, seemed to be a little moist in his eyes, but he still couldn't hold back his tears. After that, Xiao Ruoteng underwent surgery to heal old injuries, learn new moves from scratch, and adjust plans and mentality...... Careers began with a difficult "restart". At the Hangzhou Asian Games, the former all-around king turned team athlete gave up competing in parallel bars and was absent from the individual all-around event. "I'm not sure if I'll be able to surpass Tokyo in the all-around, but I'm going to try to get back to the all-around as I continue to transform into a team athlete. Xiao Ruoteng said this after the Asian Games in Hangzhou.
Xiao Ruoteng fixed his ankle on the sidelines
Xiao Ruoteng revealed that he almost shed tears when he stood on the podium this time, "Compared with the state of the previous two years, you can see that my state has rebounded, which has experienced a lot of bitterness, I can actually do very little, and the help of the coach and everyone's support have brought me a lot of help." Looking ahead to the rest of the Olympic cycle, the 28-year-old has a cautious plan: "When there are no problems, I have to create problems, and then solve them one by one, and these problems are the biggest tests and challenges I will face in the next period of time." ”
Text | Reporter Lu Hang
Figure | Reporter Liu Cheng
Editor: Long Xi