Taiwanese gymnast Tang Chia-hung (唐嘉鴻) on Sunday won gold in the men’s horizontal bar final at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Tang scored 14.966 in the final. He had advanced to the final in second place with a score of 14.566 points in qualifying, with a difficulty score of 6.000 and an execution score of 8.566.
In the final, he raised his difficulty score to 6.600, the highest among the eight finalists. Although he did not fully steady himself on landing, his score was still enough to claim the gold medal.
Tang Chia-hung competes in the men’s high bar during the apparatus finals of the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Rotterdam, Netherlands, on Sunday.
Photo: Iris van den Broek, EPA
Taiwan had previously won two silver medals and one bronze at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships. Chang Feng-chih (張峰治) took silver in the men’s vault in 1993, while Lee Chih-kai (李智凱) won silver in the men’s pommel horse in 2019 and bronze in the same event in 2018.
With his gold medal, Tang became the first Taiwanese gymnast to win a title at the world championships.
Tang said he had found a way to reset his mindset after finishing fifth and missing out on a medal in the horizontal bar final at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games in Japan.
Tang Chia-hung poses on the podium after winning the gold medal in the horizontal bar during the apparatus finals at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Rotterdam, Netherlands, on Sunday.
Photo: Patrick Post, AP
He said he had reviewed his performance with coach Huang Bo-rui (黃柏瑞) and a sports psychologist after the Asian Games.
He decided to treat the world championships final as a practice session and compete without pressure, which helped him stay calm and in control without overthinking.
This approach seemed to work quite well, he said with a laugh, adding that he now felt more confident about qualifying for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics at next year’s world championships.
Tang said he was unsure how he had performed after his unsteady landing and kept wondering how he had made such a mistake.
He said he was most grateful to everyone who had supported him, including his coaches, teammates and athletic trainers.
“We won this gold medal together, helping take Taiwan’s gymnastics another step further on the world stage,” he said.
Tang said he struggled with his preparations during the first week of training under the pressure of back-to-back major competitions. His wife, Tseng Jo-yu (曾若語), arrived in Rotterdam a day before the event and gave him a much-needed boost.
“I was physically and mentally exhausted during the training camp and didn’t feel I was in my best form, but after my wife arrived, simply having a meal and chatting with her made me feel recharged,” he said.
Tang, who has been married for two years, said his wife is his “invisible coach.”
She understood how he was feeling, kept him grounded when he got overly excited and encouraged him when he was feeling down, he said.
Huang said he had been sleeping poorly in the days leading up to the world championships because of the high level of competition, but Tang continued to train as usual after qualifying, without making any special adjustments.
Tang’s routine had the highest difficulty score in the field, so he would be hard to beat as long as he completed it, Huang said, adding that he had urged Tang to stay calm and avoid putting too much pressure on himself.
This year’s Artistic Gymnastics World Championships were held from Oct. 17 to Sunday.