The London Olympic Games - end of the apparatus finals and the artistic gymnastics competition

Results Horizontal Bar

The Netherlands'Epke Zonderland stunned the crowd at the North Greenwich Arena with an electric performance on the Horizontal Bar to win Olympic Games gold.

 

The 26-year-old pulled off the most difficult release combination - a Cassina to Kovacs to Kolman - in a spectacular performance to score 16.533 – 7.900 in difficulty and 8.633 in execution – and claim his first Games title.

Defending Olympic champion Zou Kai of China produced a near-perfect routine with a huge difficulty tariff but could only finish in bronze medal position as Germany's Fabian Hambuchen claimed silver.

 

“I still can't believe it”, Zonderland said. “It's unique to be in an Olympic final if you're a Dutch gymnast, but winning the gold is bizarre. I worked so long to achieve a result like this. This is amazing.

I didn't expect to be so nervous. I had a good preparation and my training was good and I was ready for it.

I was really happy that I came through my whole routine. It was a bit of a fight to get through the routine, but I did everything I could and this is the result.”

 

Results Balance Beam

Deng scored 15.600 to claim the title ahead of Sui in silver with 15.500, while USA's Alexandra Raisman claimed bronze following an appeal. The two Chinese girls recorded identical scores of 9.000 for difficulty but Deng earned 6.600 for execution.

Raisman was the last gymnast to compete and scored 14.966 to put her in fourth place behind Romanian Catalina Ponor before her difficulty score was upped after an appeal.

It left Raisman and Ponor tied with 15.066, but the former claimed the bronze due to a higher execution score.

 

Results Women's Floor Exercise

Raisman followed up on her bronze on the beam with an impressive performance to score 15.600 and claim the title ahead of Romania's Catalina Ponor in silver (15.200).

The 24-year-old – a triple gold medallist at Athens 2004 – described the result of the beam as “disappointing” yet she had no regrets about her decision to come out of retirement and return to the Olympic stage. “I have already been an Olympic champion. I will quit gymnastics with my head held high.”

Russian Aliya Mustafina took bronze with a score of 14.900.

Aliya Mustafina of Russia collected the bronze on a tie-break with Italy’s Vanessa Ferrari. It was Mustafina’s fourth medal in London.

Defending Olympic champion Sandra Raluca Izbasa of Romania, the last gymnast to compete, missed out after a fall on her last tumbling combination to finish bottom of the field.

 

Results Parallel Bars

The day had opened with the Men’s Parallel Bars final, which ended with China’s Feng Zhe topping the podium after an impressively controlled routine which earned him 15.966 points – including the top difficulty score of 7.000. 

Germany’s Marcel Nguyen took silver with 15.8 points – his second silver after placing second in the Individual All-around – and there was a surprise bronze medallist in France’s Hamilton Sabot who had qualified in joint-eighth place for the final but now earned his country their first – and only – gymnastics medal of these Games. “Anything can happen in an Olympic final,” he said. “My hand was hurting but you forget everything in a final.”