Teng's gold was so heavy as he had to beat not only the world-recognized pommel king, Marian Urzica from Romania, but also the great pressure exerted on him in the past week in Athens.

    Teng, 19, the rising star in recent years who was expected to be the successor of the popular star Li Xiaopeng, suffered a string of heavy blows since the beginning of the Athens Olympic Games.

    On August 14 in the qualification, Teng fell twice from the parallel bars, which is his strongest apparatus, getting the shameful score of only 6.775 points. The result not only deprived China of a gold-catching point on parallel bars, but also sent theChinese men's team to the fourth place in the qualifiers of the final.

    On August 16 in the team final, Teng sank into Waterloo as he tumbled on the floor, fell from the parallel bars and the high bar,scoring 8.662, 8.737 and 9.125 points respectively, which, to someextent, directly sent the Chinese team to the fifth place, the worst mark of the team in Olympics since 1984.

    From then on, "inexperienced, too young", such words were tags from the Chinese coaches and analysts when they were asked to comment on Teng.

    However, Teng made a brilliant return tonight, telling the world that he still has power to go ahead.

    In the pommel horse final, Urzica, the top favorite for the gold who finished first on the event at the 2000 and 2001 worlds, and at the 2000 and 2002 World Cup finals, performed before Teng and scored the then highest points of 9.825.

    As all the spectators expected Urzica to defend his Olympic title, Teng, the last one to perform, featured a series of dazzling movements and his stuck landing won huge applause.