Taiwan artistic gymnast wins gold at World Cup series

Berlin, Nov. 24 (CNA) Taiwanese artistic gymnast Lee Chih-kai (李智凱) won a gold medal in the men's pommel horse event at the Artistic Gymnastics World Cup series tournament held by the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) in Cottbus, Germany on Saturday.

With the medal the 22 year old collected 30 Olympic points, moving one step forward closer to his goal of competing at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.

At the 43rd Turnier der Meister FIG Individual Apparatus World Cup, Lee beat competitors from China and Iran in the finals by perfectly executing a highly challenging routine that received a score of 15.508 from the judges. It marked his first victory in the qualification tournaments for the Olympics.

There are a total of eight events where athletes can accumulate Olympic points, Lee's coach Lin Yu-hsin (林育信) said, noting that if Lee manages to win two more gold medals in the next qualification tournaments, he will automatically be able to participate at the Tokyo Olympics.

Lee previously won gold in the men's pommel horse at the 2017 Singapore Open Gymnastics Championships and the Taipei Summer Universiade. He also picked up a gold medal at the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia in August.

(By Lin Yu-li and Elizabeth Hsu)

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