“Elvis of the World” Tang Jiahong is the first Taiwanese man to win a gold medal on the horizontal bar at the World Championships

Taiwanese male gymnast and “Elvis of the World” Tang Jiahong won the gold medal in the horizontal bar final at the World Gymnastics Championships in Rotterdam, Netherlands, with a difficulty score of 6.600, execution score of 8.366 and total score of 14.966. This was her first gold medal with the Taiwanese gymnastics team at the World Championships.

Tang Jiahong, who competed at the 54th World Gymnastics Championships, placed second in the horizontal bar qualifying round with a difficulty score of 6.000, an execution score of 8.566, and a total score of 14.566.

In today’s finals, Tang Jiahong raised the difficulty score to 6.600, the highest among the eight finalists. I saw that Tang Jiahong’s entire set of movements was smooth and effortless, completely getting rid of the haze of losing the bar at the Nagoya Asian Games. Although he couldn’t keep up perfectly when introducing the method, he still got high marks.

In previous gymnastics world championships history, Taiwan has won 2 silvers and 1 bronze, including Zhang Fengzhi’s men’s vault silver medal in 1993, Li Xikai’s men’s pommel horse silver medal in 2019, and Li Xikai’s men’s pommel horse bronze medal in 2018.

After Tang Jiahong successfully won the gold medal today, he also became the first gymnast in the history of Taiwanese gymnastics to win a gold medal at the World Championships. After the game, he heard the Taiwanese team anthem and flag-raising at the awards ceremony, and his eyes couldn’t help but become moist.

Coach Huang Bairui told the Central News Agency reporter that he has not been able to sleep properly these days. After all, the World Championship is the biggest and the players here are also very strong. No one can tell until the end of the competition. “But although we will be nervous and under pressure, we will train normally after the qualifying round and there will be no special adjustments.”

Huang Bairui revealed that the set of moves in today’s final was the same as the final of the Nagoya Asian Games. “Jiahong is already very familiar with this set of moves, so he has been practicing it since the qualifying round. Although his performance on the bar was almost perfect, when descending he pushed the bar away too quickly, leading to the parabola. Therefore, he jumped twice when he landed, and he lost a lot of points.”

Although Tang Jiahong failed to win a medal at the Nagoya Asian Games due to mistakes, he soon won the gold medal at the World Championships. Huang Bairui insisted, “In fact, as long as Jiahong completes the movements, basically no one can surpass him in difficulty, so I told him to stay calm and not be too stressed.”

The Taiwan team left for the Netherlands on October 2 at the World Gymnastics Championships. He trained at a local club for a week before traveling to Rotterdam to compete. It has been more than three weeks so far.

Huang Bairui mentioned that from the Asian Games to the World Championships, the players’ mentality was very tense, and they would take a big vacation after returning to Taiwan. “As for next year, I should plan to go to the United States for training, or participate in more Cup competitions to adapt to the American environment and atmosphere, and prepare in advance for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.”