China's all-conquering gymnasts concluded their gold haul at the Beijing Olympics on Tuesday, snatching nine out of the 14 golds on offer.

It's the Chinese gymnasts' best Olympic record. The previous record was set in the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984, when the Chinese harvested 5 gold medals, 4 silver and 2 bronze in gymnastics.

The nine golds also made China's gymnastics team the No. 1 contributor to the country's gold medal tally in a single Olympics.

China and the United States finished on top on Tuesday night, the last night of the gymnastics individual finals at the Beijing Olympic Games.

Earlier, Chinese gymnasts had swept seven gymnastics gold medals, including men's team, women's team, men's all-around, men's floor exercise, women's floor exercise, men's pommel horse, rings, women's uneven bars, men's parallel bars and horizontal bar.

Li Xiaopeng and Zou Kai continued China's gold run on Tuesday, with Li, a three-time Olympian and multi-world champion, was crowned in his speciality apparatus of parallel bars, and Olympic debutant Zou winning China's first horizontal bar gold.

The 27-year-old Li, the most decorated finalist on parallel bars, won gold with a score of 16.450 points. Li added to his medal collection, which includes gold medals at the Sydney Olympic and at the 2002 and 2003 world championships, and a bronze medal at the Athens Olympics.

Zou, 20, was the dark horse among Tuesday's horizontal bar competitors, when he outplayed strong rivals such as reigning world champion Fabian Hambuchen from Germany with the hardest routine of the night.

This is Zou's third gold at the Beijing Olympics, after he won in the team and floor exercise finals. The three golds also made Zou the biggest winner at the Beijing Olympic gymnastics.

But in balance beam, China's traditional favorite apparatus, US pair Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin defeated their Chinese challengers Cheng Fei and Li Shanshan to pocket the gold and silver. Cheng won the bronze.

"The gymnastics competitions of the Beijing Olympics were spectacular. Some of them were so fierce," said Gao Jian, director of the gymnastics center of the State General Administration of Sport, the country's Sports Ministry.

"I can assure you some gymnastics competitions at the Beijing Games, such as men's team and women's team contests, are classics which cannot be seen for a very long time," said Gao. "We are so proud of our team. Our four years' hard work eventually paid off."

For the Chinese gymnastics team, their victory at the Beijing Olympics has never come easily, specially after their Waterloo in Athens. In Athens, the Chinese gymnasts brought home a sole gold medal, much to the disappointment of their compatriots.

As a matter of fact, gymnastics, one of the sports that brought China most Olympics gold medals, means so much to the country and its people. Three gymnasts were chosen for important roles at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.

Former gymnast Huang Liping swore at the ceremony on behalf of judges, Li Xiaoshuang, one of China's greatest gymnasts of his age, was one of the eight torch bearers, and above all, China's gymnastics legend Li Ning lit the cauldron.

But being the focus equals pressure, resulting from high expectations piled on them. That's exactly what made Chinese male gymnasts' failure in Athens a bitter and lasting scar.

From the first world all-around gold medal by Li Ning in 1982, to the first Olympic all-around champion by Li Xiaoshuang in 1996, to the first Olympics men's team gold in Sydney, the Chinese finished their journey from being nothing to a gymnastics superpower.

They were expected to gain more, particularly the team title, because it is placed above individual titles as a measurement of the country's overall level of gymnastics. But their dream to build on their Sydney achievement was crushed in Athens.

The Chinese gymnastics team came under heavy fire after the Athens Games, and some media even described the Athens as "drawing the line between Chinese gymnasts' paradise and hell". The Chinese gymnastics team sank to its lowest.

How the Chinese gymnasts made their impressive comeback may be a long story, but Gao preferred to keep it short. "In the past four years, we had worked so hard to come from our lowest to the peak."

Like Gao, Huang Yubing, head coach of the men's team, summed up Chinese gymnasts' renaissance with one sentence. "We adjusted ourselves to the gymnastics new scoring system and new rules."

With the newly-obtained golds, Chinese gymnasts won a total of 52 Olympic medals, including 22 gold medals, 22 silver and 15 bronze.

(Xinhua News Agency August 20, 2008)