Yang wins women's all-around at China's gym championship

SHANGHAI - Yang Yilin from Guangdong province captured the women's all-around title here at China's national gymnastics championship on Thursday.

Yang, 15, dominated most of the disciplines to clinch the women' s all-around title with 56.150 points. She scored highest marks on vault and uneven bars.

Xiao Sha from Guizhou province was second with 55.550 points and He Ning third in 54.550.

Yang started to train at the age of five and strode over the threshold of national team last year. According to Lu Shanzhen, head coach of women's team, Yang coordinates well physically and has the potential to stand out, especially in uneven bars and even all-around internationally.

Yang is still a rookie at world arena. Her first international experience is the Australia vs China friendly on May.

Xiao Sha overcame her downfall from uneven bars to take the second place through a better result from the last apparatus, floor exercise. Xiao had the highest score of 15.600 points among all apparatuses in beam.

She piled up four golds at Ukraine invitational tournament of gymnastics on April, including team, all-around, uneven bars and beam.

Mistakes were abundant at the all-around final for the renowned players. Pang Panpan, the defending champion, dropped from beam and then failed to arise in her vault dismount; Zhou Zhuoru fell down from uneven bars; He Ning sat on the buttocks in her dismount of floor exercise. They are all the members of world team champions in Aarhus, Denmark, last year.