"It's not easy because we have come a long way to be here. We will make efforts for better results in the future," she said.

"We cried a lot today because it's not easy for us to get the silver. Most of us have injuries and we just held on. We hope today's win will bring more Chinese girls to the sport," said Zhang's teammate Sun Dan.

Sun said she and her teammates did not set the goal for a medal.

"We just wanted to do our best. We were not the pre-game favourite and so we placed ourselves in a lower position. We were fighting for better results, not the medal," she said.

The Chinese girls also said their improved artistry helped them a lot.

"Our strong point is the difficulty of our routines, and the weak point is artistry. We trained a lot in the past two months to improve artistry and the efforts paid off," said Zhang Shuo.

The Russians were also overwhelmed by their impressive victory.

Elena Posevina of Russia said: "We are overwhelmed with emotion. It took a lot of training and it's been a long road. We are yet to fully comprehend this victory."

She said the competition is generally improving. "On the one hand our group is developing and on the other hand more and more countries are joining the Olympic movement, so the competition is improving."

Italy, the silver medallist four years ago, was fourth. "I really, really feel upset. We did not live up to our expectations," said Italian Elisa Santoni.

Each group, consisting of five gymnasts, performed two routines, the first with five ropes and the second with three hoops and two clubs.

The top eight groups from qualifications competed in the final on Sunday.

(Xinhua News Agency August 24, 2008)