OLYMPICS/Gymnast Tang Chia-hung breaks own record at Koper World Challenge Cup

Taipei, June 3 (CNA) Taiwanese gymnast Tang Chia-hung (唐嘉鴻) won a gold medal in the horizontal bar event at the 2024 World Challenge Cup in Koper, Slovenia on Sunday (Koper time), where he also established a personal best of 15.400 points.

Tang's triumph at the Slovenian port city extended his run of dominant performances in the lead-up to this summer's Paris Olympics, in which he had already earned a spot.

The Koper event, held between May 30 and June 2, was the fourth of five competitions making up the 2024 International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) Artistic Gymnastics World Challenge Cup series, with the last leg in Hungary's Szombathely scheduled for October this year after the Paris Olympics.

Tang, 27, had already won three gold medals in horizontal bars at the four summer Olympic Games qualifying events that were in the 2024 FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Cup series.

According to Tang's coach Weng Shih-hang (翁士航) after the competition, with Tang's confirmed attendance at the Paris Olympics, the Challenge Cup series served as both pre-Olympics training for the Taiwanese gymnast, as well as a means to promote Tang to the rest of the world.

"I believe the videos of his (Koper) competition will soon circulate over the internet," Weng said. "But we are not worried at all. Right now, we intend to let the world know that we are going to the Olympics to snatch a gold medal."

The reason behind Weng's confidence was Tang's personal record-breaking performance on Sunday in Koper, where he soared to another first-place finish with a total score of 15.400, based on an execution score of 8.6 on a routine with a difficulty score of 6.8.

Tang had scored the same points, 15.400, during the qualifiers to enter the main event as its top competitor, although the score was based on a routine with a difficulty level of 6.3.

Aside from achieving a perfect landing that gave him his medal at the finals, Tang challenged himself by performing a high difficulty routine without the use of a mat, which was a crucial factor for his score as it meant no points were deducted for his routine.

Tang was trailed by Tin Srbic of Croatia, who earned a silver medal with a score of 14.950, and Italy's Carlo Macchini, who took bronze with a score of 14.700.

Weng told CNA that there was still room for improvement in Tang's execution.

"We started planning towards tackling the difficulty level of 6.8 last year," Weng said. "These last three stops in Europe was for him to work out the kinks. The world of gymnastics is now very competitive and staying put (in his comfort zone) won't achieve success."

Weng went on to say that as the majority of the European judges in Tang's last three competitions would also work at the upcoming Olympics, it was the team's goal to get Tang recognized as a world-class gymnast.