Fan Ye from He Nan is waving to the audience at the awarding ceremony. Fan wins gymnastics all-round title.

NANJING, East China, Oct. 14 (Xinhuanet, by Chen Yu) -- World champion Fan Ye stormed to women's gymnastics all-round victory by upstaging two other favorites Zhang Yunfei and Cheng Fei here at the National Games on Friday.

    The 19-year-old Fan, a member in the Chinese squad in Athens and the balance beam gold medallist in 2003 worlds, stole the spotlight from Cheng and Zhang when she surged to the first place in the second round and firmly held on to it through the rounds.

    Except for a comparatively low score of 9.184 in her first round of vault, Fan had outstanding exhibitions on uneven bar, balance and floor, scoring 9.700, 9.787 and 9.684 points respectively.

    Cheng, also a member in China's Athens squad, had a joyful start when she scored 9.734 points on her strong vault, the highest among her six-strong group.

    Vault and floor are two weak apparatus for most Chinese women gymnasts, but are the strong events for Zhang, which makes her China's hopeful in international events for breakthrough on the two apparatus.

    But 9.10 points on uneven bars and 9.550 points on balance beamerode her advantage in the first round and dragged her to fourth place in the third round.

    Though she made a strong launch in her last rotation of floor, she failed to narrow the distance with top player Fan and settled for a silver with a total of 38.068.

    Zhang Yufei, from gymnastics powerhouse Guangdong, maintained all-round first place in the qualifications and the team final, but failed to move further in the all-round final.

    After a dim start with 9.384 points on vault, she managed to climb from the sixth place to the third place in the uneven bar rotation.

Fan Ye is in floor round.

    But she suffered a fatal setback in the third round, when she fell from the balance beam following a major wobble, earning only 9.017 points. She finished fifth.

    Zhang Nan, the 2004 Athens Olympics all-round bronze winner, received another bronze in Friday's all-round final.

    "I am satisfied with the result," a beaming Fan told a press conference. "Balance beam is my strong event," she said, referringto her score of 9.784 points on beam.

    She got only 9.15 points on vault with a start value of 9.4, because vault is her weakest apparatus, she said.

    Looking to the coming world gymnastics championship, Fan said she is eyeing a gold medal on balance beam and will also "do her best on other apparatus." Enditem