San Francisco Frontiers - China's Zhang beats Japan rivals to Asian Games gymnastics gold

China's Zhang overcame an injury niggle to win gold in Nagoya ahead of Paris Olympics champion Shinnosuke Oka and reigning world champion Daiki Hashimoto.

Zhang will hope to repeat the feat at next month's world championships in Rotterdam and he said he had grown as an athlete.

"I have kept reviewing my own shortcomings," said Zhang, who finished second behind Oka at the Paris Olympic Games and again behind Hashimoto at the most recent world championships.

"Mostly it has been about adjusting the technical elements, and letting my mentality become more and more mature."

Zhang said it was "an intense competition and a very exciting one".

"For me personally the pressure was also very high, because I picked up a small injury before coming here and during the competition it did have some effect," said the 26-year-old.

"But what deserves the most credit is that I overcame the difficulty."

Oka came into the competition nursing a back injury that forced him to downgrade the difficulty of his routines.

He said his performance was "the level I am able to produce right now".

When asked how he got through his routines, he said: "Injections, going into an oxygen capsule, and then giving up the skills that hurt my back.

"The skills that hurt, and the ones that looked like they were going to hurt, I could not do this time," he added.

"This time that worked, and I got through it without the back flaring up."

J.Peterson--SFF