Canada's Maclennan wins trampoline gold as He flops (updated)
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E-mail Xinhua, August 5, 2012
LONDON, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Rosannagh Maclennan of Canada won the Olympic women's trampoline gold medal on Saturday, partly benefitting from a landing mistake by China's defending Olympic and world champion He Wenna.
Maclennan, who placed seventh at the Beijing Olympics and won silver at the 2011 world championships behind He, produced 57.305 points from a final routine that had a leading difficulty of 15.400 points. Her execution points of 25.600 were the highest among the finalists.
If He hadn't sat on the trampoline in her landing, it would have been a perfect winning routine for the Chinese, who topped the qualification with 105.500 points from two routines.
Three-time Olympian Huang Shanshan took silver with 56.730 points.
This is her second medal after she won bronze at Athens Olympics. Four years ago in Beijing, Huang was disqualified for the final due to a routine fall.
"I'm so excited," said MacLennan. "I'm so surprised to win, for the Chinese are so strong. They barely falter, so that happened it's shocking."
"The trampoline is something you love and you won't give any excuses when you train for it."
Huang, who will retire from her beloved sport, broke into tears after the award ceremony.
"I am happy with the silver medal, but I feel regretful for myself as I have trained for so long and I am going to leave the Olympic stage without taking a gold medal," said the 26-year-old Huang.
"I don't think I can continue to train for the Rio Olympics. I have injuries.
"You're just inches away from the victory, but you just can't reach that."
He explained that her fault came from hastiness. "It's kind of technical problem. I'm a little bit hasty in executing the last skill," said He, who began training at age 5.
He said she had not expected victory after the Olympics. "I was not in good form this year. My teammate Huang is in better shape," said He.
MacLennan, ranked fourth in the qualification, started trampoline at seven, made Ontario's team by nine, and was competing internationally by 11.
She started at a small local club and moved with her two older brothers
to Skyriders, home of Canadian coach Dave Ross. She watched the big kids,
including her teammate Karen Cockburn and 2000 Olympic bronze medalist Matt Turgeon, who later married Cockburn.
Cockburn, 31, is trying to become the first trampolinist to win a medal
in four Olympic Games, but she was narrowly behind He in 0.090 points,
finishing fourth.
Cockburn earned bronze as one of the pioneering athletes when the sport
made its Olympic debut at the 2000 Sydney Games. She then took silver in
Athens and Beijing.
Russia's Victoria Voronina, who came up to compete first, failed to
finish her routine.
Athletes initially perform two routines -- the first is a focus on
simplicity and execution, with skills counting for difficulty, with the
second routine having no difficulty limitations.
The top eight advance to the final where each athlete needs to
perform 10 different skills in their routine. Enditem
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