Leszek Blanik(L) of Poland celebrates with his coach after the vault performance during gymnastics artistic apparatus finals of Beijing 2008 Olympic Games at National Indoor Stadium in Beijing, China, Aug. 18, 2008. Leszek Blanik claimed the title of the event with a score of 16.537. (Xinhua Photo)

Leszek Blanik won the gold medal in the men's vault on Monday at the Beijing Olympics, the first gymnastics title for Poland in its Olympic history.

In a black-and-white gymnastic suit, Blanik collected 16.537 points with two jumps, both with the second greatest difficulty of 7.0. Thomas Bouhail from France who gained the same score in the final, took the silver at last according to tie-breaking rules.

The bronze went to Anton Golotsutskov from Russia who accumulated 16.475 points.

Thee-time Olympian Marian Dragulescu gave a next-to-perfect performance in his first jump, raising the hope to claim the second gymnastics gold for Romania at the Beijing Olympics. However, he failed to give sufficient height to his second jump and lied down on the mat with face down, crashing his medal hope into ashes. He ranked the fourth by scoring 16.225 points.

The bronze medalist in the men's all-around, Benoit Caranobe of France,also sat on the mat in landing in his second jump and ended up the fifth.

Blanik had remained cautious about his medal prospect during the training period in Beijing.

"So far I am just expecting to be a finalist in the vault competition. That is the first step, and then I will think of a medal because it is the Olympic Games which is more important than world championships and anything could happen in the Olympics, just like lottery," the gymnast told Xinhua before the qualification.

(Xinhua News Agency August 18, 2008)