CHINA completed the most dominant Olympic gymnastics performance from any nation for 20 years yesterday after yet another judging controversy involving the home nation.

China's Zou Kai won the men's high bar and Li Xiaopeng the men's parallel bars to take the host nation's gymnastics gold medal tally to nine out of 14, the most since the Soviet Union won 10 in 1988.

US gymnasts Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin ensured the final night of gymnastics competition did not all go China's way, snaring a one-two finish in the women's balance beam.

Zou won his second individual gold of the Games ahead of Jonathon Horton of the United States and Fabian Hambuechen of Germany.

Reigning world champion Hambuechen opened the final with a solid 15.875 but it was not enough as Zou followed him soon after with a routine featuring spectacular release and grab movements that scored 16.2.
The crowd thought Horton had bettered him as he went for broke with a dynamic performance and sustained booing erupted when the American was awarded 16.175, broken only by isolated cheering among some Chinese fans.

The same occurred when defending Olympic champion Igor Cassina of Italy performed the last routine of the night, spinning around the high bar on only one had but receiving only 15.675 and fourth place.

There was controversy on Monday when China's He Kexin won gold on the women's parallel bars under a complicated tiebreak system, even though US gymnast Nastia received exactly the same score and had to settle for silver.

On the men's parallel bars, Li added a Beijing gold to the one he scored at the Sydney Games in 2000.

Li beat South Korea's Yoo Won-chai and Anton Fokin of Uzbekistan to snare his fourth career Olympic gold, including the Sydney and Beijing team gold.

China's most decorated gymnast needed to better Yoo's 16.25 in the last performance of the night on bars and did so with style, scoring 16.45 from the judges for his near-flawless routine.

Li's gold gave him 18 Olympic and world titles in his career making him the China's most decorated gymnast-ever and well ahead of Li Ning's 14 career championships.

Shawn finally claimed gold after winning three silver medals in Beijing, with Nastia taking silver and China's Cheng Fei grabbing bronze.

It was a narrow victory for Shawn, who scored 16.225, just 0.2 ahead of the 160.025 posted by Nastia, the reigning world champion on the apparatus.

China's Cheng Fei made two wobbles during her routine and stepped on landing but still shot to an early lead with 15.95.

She stayed top until Shawn's breathtaking routine, in which the tiny American somersaulted and flipped along the 10cm wide wooden beam with absolute confidence. -- AFP