Taiwan's 'pommel horse prince' wins gold at World Cup in Baku

Taipei, March 11 (CNA) Taiwan gymnast Lee Chih-kai (李智凱) won gold in the men's pommel horse competition on Sunday at the FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Cup series held in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan.

In the Baku event, Olympic medalist Lee, known as the "prince of the pommel horse," achieved 15.400 points overall and was tied with American gymnast Stephen Nedoroscik to secure joint first, bringing a 2024 Paris Olympics spot ever closer.

The World Cup in Baku is a qualification event, held by the International Gymnastics Federation -- also known as the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG) -- for the 2024 Olympic Games. The fourth meet in the 2024 FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Cup series will be held in Doha, Qatar from April 17-20.

Before the Baku meet, 27-year-old Lee was ranked 12th after the first two qualification events in Cairo, Egypt, and Cottbus, Germany.

On Sunday, however, Lee successfully completed a particularly tough top pommel horse move, which led to him securing 15.400 overall and the joint top spot.

Lee's coach, Lin Yu-hsin (林育信), told CNA that Lee's successful strategy in the Baku competition and the decision to take on the challenging move had propelled him ahead of at least two rivals who had outranked him in previous events.

Lin described Lee's performance in Baku as "almost perfect," saying he had given it his utmost and was also helping to boost global recognition of Taiwan's gymnastics prowess.

Lee took silver in the men's pommel horse at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo before winning gold in the event at the Hangzhou Asian Games in 2023 and at the 2023 World University Games.

Shiao Yu-jan (蕭佑然), another Taiwanese pommel horse gymnast, secured his highest-ever score of 15.300 points at the event, taking third.

Cheng Kun-chieh(鄭焜傑), Shiao's coach, said he thought Shiao should have been given a higher score because of a challenging move he completed.

Meanwhile, Taiwanese horizontal bar standout Tang Chia-hung (唐嘉鴻) secured 14.200 points in the Baku event and won the fifth spot, but held onto the top spot overall following the first three FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Cup events.

With the No. 1 ranking, the likelihood of Tang, nicknamed "King of Cat," securing a spot at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris is high.

After the event, Tang and his coach Weng Shih-hang (翁士航) embraced each other and cried as the dream came yet another step closer.

Also in Baku, Taiwan's Tseng Wei-sheng (曾為聖) won fourth place in the men's vault, while Ting Hua-tien (丁華恬) secured sixth in the women's ballance beam.