Nastia Liukin loses tiebreaker and the gold medal for uneven bars
OLYMPIC GYMNASTICS
The American gymnast, who won the all-around title last week, finishes with silver when China's He Kexin is awarded the victory.
BEIJING -- He Kexin of China beat Nastia Liukin of the U.S. by virtue of a tiebreaker score to win the Olympic uneven bars gold medal Monday night at the National Indoor Stadium.
He and Liukin each scored 16.725 points on routines with an equal start value, or degree of difficulty, of 7.7.
But Liukin lost on a tiebreaker procedure that was unclear immediately. Even former coach Bela Karolyi was unsure why He was the winner.
Yang Yilin of China won the bronze medal.
Both He and Yang have had their ages questioned over the last three weeks. He was reported in several Chinese newspapers to have been 13 years old last November, and several documents seemed to indicate that Yang might be 14. Olympic gymnasts need to be at least 16 or turn that age during the year of the competition.
China's Chen Yibing, the two-time defending world champion on still rings, won the gold medal in that men's event Monday and his teammate Yang Wei, who won the Olympic all-around gold medal last week, took silver. Ukraine's Oleksandr Vorobiov finished with the bronze.
That made China five for five in men's gymnastics gold medals awarded so far at the National Indoor Stadium, although nobody from China qualified for Monday's final individual event, the men's vault.
diane.pucin@latimes.com
