"I had experience such as excelling on five apparatus but failed the last. I also had experience of losing the first but succeeding on the remaining five. Things of such kind cannot affect me any more," said Yang.

"The gold medal is meaningful because it's China's second men's all-around gold and also the second under the coach Huang Yubin," he said.

Yang and China's first men's all-around gold medalist Li Xiaoshuang are both from China's Hubei province. "I am happy as it's the second men's all-around gold medal from Xiantao city of Hubei province," he said.

Yang's teammate Chen Yibing, a rings specialist, tried hard to pull back from a crushing start on pommel horse.

He dropped shortly after his mount and placed 23rd. But the highest 16.650 points on his specialty sent him to 10th and he even made it to the third with consistent efforts.

But a fatal blow came after he fell from the horizontal bar. He even did not finish his routine and finished in last place.

Kohei Uchimura also nearly ruined his chance after disastrous performance on pommel horse. He dropped twice and scored as low as 13.275 points. But his stable performance throughout the rest of the competition brought him to second berth among the 24 finals.

"I exhausted myself in the team competition and also has injuries. I can feel weakness and injuries during my pommel horse routine. So I gave up today's competition. I must save my energy for my individual titles, " said Chen Yibing after the competition.

He also said his teammate Yang is above the field and deserves the gold. "He trained so hard for so many years and the gold should be his," he said.

Silver medalist Kohei said he was happy with a silver medal after a slack start.

"I think I was in a very bad situation (after pommel horse). I thought 'I won't be able to get a medal.' Therefore, at that moment, I didn't think about anything except for continuing the competition," he said.

For Caranobe, the bronze is a sheer surprise. "It's very special and even in my dreams I never said I would have a bronze medal. I don't know what to say."

He said horizontal bar was crucial for his winning. "The horizontal bar was important, because I'm not good at it. I was stressed about it but now I'm happy."

On contrary to the French's good luck on horizontal bar, Fabian Hambuchem of Germany had really bad luck on the apparatus, his specialty.

The horizontal bar world champion unexpectedly dropped from the bar and lost his last hope for making the top three.

(Xinhua News Agency August 14, 2008)