Gymnastics: Yoneda wins 2nd silver at World Cup

Asian Economic News, Dec 13, 2004

BIRMINGHAM, England, Dec. 13 Kyodo

Japan's Isao Yoneda captured his second silver medal in as many days on Sunday when he finished second in the men's horizontal bar on the last day of the World Cup Final in England.

Yoneda, who took the horizontal bronze medal at the Athens Olympics, earned 9.662 points at Birmingham's National Indoor Arena and finished 0.025 point behind Ukraine's Valeri Goncharov.

Vlasios Maras of Greece was third on 9.650 and Japan's Takehiro Kashima was sixth.

''I am satisfied with the silver medal but I would have preferred gold,'' said Yoneda, who won the silver in the floor routine on Saturday.

''I am not happy with my landing but the more I concentrated on it the worse it got. I have injured my left knee, which affected my landing. I am going home to improve on my performance.''

It was the third World Cup podium finish for Yoneda, who also finished third in the floor exercise at the 1998 meet in Sabae, Japan. He was a key member of the Japanese men's team in Athens that gave the country its first Olympic team event gold in 28 years.

Elsewhere for Japan, Hiroyuki Tomita, the Olympic silver medalist, had to settle for fifth place in the parallel bars discipline won by Slovenia's Mitja Petkovsek. Tomita won Japan's other medal when he took silver on the rings on Saturday.