Reigning Olympic and world champion Chen Yibing finished his fourth World Championships fruitlessly after an awkward landing in the men's rings qualification here on Tuesday. The Chinese star admitted that he suffered from the pressure of being on top of the event.
Chen, coming into the 2012 Olympic Games venue as the best rings performer in the world, showed his skills well for the most part of his routine. However, he made an extremely unusual mistake during the landing which led to a deduction of 0.3 point from his difficulty points.
"I turned my body too early so as to bump the ring with my left foot," explained Chen. "I have never made such a mistake for years of competitions. It's so strange," a seemingly calm Chen continued.
"I thought I tuned up quite well after the defeat at the National Games and I didn't realized that I got any pressure ahead of this championships. I didn't expected..." Chen could not control his feeling anymore and burst into tears in front of several Chinese journalists.
Chen said his defeat at the 11th Chinese National Games was mainly due to the fever, but pressure was also a reason. "As an Olympic champion, I felt something different from the past. Years ago, I just tried to be the best. But now, I'm the best and everybody tries to beat me."
World Championships rookie Yan Mingyong was the one to overplay Chen at the National Games and a relaxed Yan performed great to advance into the final as the top qualifier.
Chen cheered himself up with the objective of claiming his third consecutive world championship title in the rings event, but the awful landing meant that he had finished his performance this time.
Chen, who will turn 25 at the end of this year, also believed that he need to shoulder more responsibilities in the Chinese men's team as their big brother Yang Wei retired after the achievements at Beijing Olympics.
"As a veteran in the team, I think I need to consider more about the whole team," he said.
Although his journey in London was over, Chen is going to participate in two legs of World Cup later. "Maybe I could benefit from the unexpected loss," said Chen. "There are three years ahead of the London Olympics and I need to adjust myself in time."
The other five competitors of the Chinese men's team including three-time Olympic champion Zou Kai all cruised into the finals.