Liu delivers with ringing success

China's ambitious gymnastics team has finally delivered on the big stage at the Paris Olympics, having suffered consecutive near misses in earlier events, with a one-two finish in the men's rings final on Sunday.

With a consistent, high-quality execution of his dazzling routines, China's defending champion Liu Yang fended off a strong field, including teammate Zou Jingyuan and Eleftherios Petrounias of Greece, to finish first in the men's rings final and retain the gold in an event that tests strength and balance to the extreme.

Liu said after winning the first gold medal for the Chinese gymnastics squad that he was proud to be the one who got the monkey off the team's back.

"I feel there were still some flaws in today's routine. As a perfectionist, it wasn't perfect enough for me. But I'm very happy to have won a gold medal for China," said Liu, who dominated the final with 15.300 points.

"I'm both happy and a bit regretful. I'm thrilled to defend my title on the rings, but it's disappointing that we didn't win the gold medal in the team event."

Last week at Bercy Arena in Paris, Team China was beaten by Japan in the last minute in the men's team final after two gymnasts, veteran Xiao Ruoteng and youngster Su Weide, both landed with errors in their routines on the horizontal bar, squandering China's early lead.

Liu is now the third man to win multiple Olympic titles in rings, joining Albert Azaryan of the former Soviet Union and Akinori Nakayama of Japan.

Zou came in second with 15.233 points, while Petrounias completed the podium with 15.100. Samir Ait Said of France finished fourth, eight years after breaking a leg on the vault at the Rio Olympics. Said, who has committed to trying to make it to Los Angeles 2028, roared after his dismount in front of a highly partisan crowd inside Bercy Arena.

Meanwhile, the all-conquering Chinese table tennis team stayed on course for a clean sweep of all five gold medals up for grabs in Paris, after nine-time world champion Fan Zhendong overcame a first-game scare to beat Sweden's 22-year-old Truls Moregard 4-1 to win his first men's singles Olympic gold medal.

The victory also helped him complete a "grand slam" in table tennis that refers to a player's collection of all the three major titles: world championship, World Cup and Olympic gold.

It was also the first time since Athens 2004 that the men's singles final at an Olympics featured a non-Chinese competitor, with the finals at Beijing 2008, London 2012, Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 all seeing battles between two Chinese.

"Without the disappointment and growth from Tokyo 2020, I probably wouldn't be here today," Fan said of his comeback from a narrow defeat by veteran Ma Long in the final at the Tokyo Olympics.

"Every failure or challenge helps you grow. The prerequisite is that you have the courage to face your failure," he said.

"For the preparation for these Games, I didn't focus too much on the final outcome. I just focused on making the best out of my everyday routines. As long as you work hard and stay concentrated on your target, the result will take care of itself," said Fan, a 27-year-old native of Guangdong province.