Olympics: He edges Liukin for gold on uneven bars

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By The Associated Press | Monday, August 18, 2008 11:01 AM CDT | () comments

China's gymnast gold medal winner He Kexin, center, is flanked by runner-up U.S. gymnast Nastia Lukin, left, and China's Yang Yilin who won the bronze medal during the uneven bars apparatus finals at the Beijing 2008 Olympics. (AP Photo)

BEIJING — China’s He Kexin won a tiebreaker over all-around champion Nastia Liukin of the United States for the uneven bars gold medal this morning at the Beijing Olympics.

Both scored 16.725, but He got the nod because her execution marks were closer to a perfect 10 than Liukin’s.

He, at the center of an age-eligibility controversy throughout the games, was fast and furious on the bars. Her twists and flips went by in the blink of an eye, and she won by about that short a margin.

Liukin, who sat stone-faced for much of the competition, now has four medals, two of them silver.

Today’s bronze went to China’s Yang Yilin, her third medal, including bronze in the all-around.

U.S. women have won six medals here; China’s women have five, including team gold.