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Chinese gymnast, Yang Wei, wins all-around

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BEIJING -- No controversy here.

Twenty-four hours after the Chinese female gymnasts won the team competition and then had to face allegations that some team members were underage, a Chinese man, Yang Wei, won the men’s all-around in convincing fashion. He won by 2.6 points over Japan’s Kohei Uchimura. France’s Benoit Caranobe was third.

U.S. gymnasts Jonathan Horton and Alexander Artemev were ninth and 12th, respectively.

All was calm afterward, unlike in 2004, when the United States’ Paul Hamm won a controversial decision.

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International gymnastics officials later acknowledged that Korea’s Yang Tae-young, who finished third, should have won because the start value for his parallel bars routine was undervalued by the judges. But the South Koreans didn’t protest in time and the result stood.

China’s Yang was in first place at one point but lost his grip on the high bar and finished seventh. He made up for it uncontroversially, although you do have to wonder if Hamm could have challenged him. Hamm and his brother, Morgan, both missed these Games because of injuries.

--Randy Harvey

Related: Diane Pucin’s coverage of the men’s individual all-around competition

China’s Wei Yang competes on the rings during the men’s individual all-around final of the artistic gymnastics event of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. FRANCK FIFE/AFP/Getty Images

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