China's Xiao Qin and Cheng Fei each won a third straight world title to highlight China's ecstasy of claiming three gold medals on Saturday at the Stuttgart Championships.

Xiao, 22, won men's pommel horse while Cheng beat Hong Su Jong from DPR Korea to retain her vault title which she held for a third year in a row.

Cheng Yibin later added a third gold of the day, and a fifth overall, for China by defending men's rings titles.

Brazilian Diego Hypolito and Russian rookie Ksenia Semenova split the remaining two titles on Saturday with Hypolito winning men's floor and Smenova striking gold on uneven bars.

"I felt intense pressure from opponents although I won with relatively big edge, which was a very different feeling compared to the last two years," Xiao said.

"In 2005 and 2006, I won with quite confidence. But this time, I didn't know I could win after finishing my routine.

"The Olympics is coming and everyone is working hard, particularly on the difficulty. So am I."

The pommel horse king scored 16.300 points for a spectacular layout with a A score of 6.6, highest of the field, beating Krisztian Berki of Hungary by an amazing 0.600.

British Louis Smith, 18, took the bronze in 15.600.

China's Yang Wei, who became the second gymnast to win back-to-back men's all-around world titles on Friday, just missed a podium finish and ended up fourth in 15.475.

With both vaulting's difficulty reaching 6.5, Cheng scored an average of 15.937 points for the title, beating Hong by 0.125. Alicia Sacramone of the United States took bronze in 15.412.

The 32-year-old Okssana Chusovitina, representing Germany since last year, landed on her knees after the first attempt and ended up sixth.

Men's rings final saw an intense multi-way competition between top gymnasts, in which seven of the eight scored over 16.000.

Chen, last year's gold medalist, showed his strength on rings and received a highest 16.700 of the day, beating Yuri van Gelder of the Netherlands by 0.075 points.

The 2005 world champion Gelder took silver and the bronze medal went to Bulgarian veteran Jordan Jovtchev who scored 16.575.

On the men's floor, the withdrawal of reigning champion Marian Dragulescu of Romania due to injury left the door wide open for competition.

Hypolito's stable and solid performance earned him the highest score of 16.150 points as no one got through the routine without mistakes.

Gervasio Deferr of Spain collected 15.950 for the silver and the bronze medal went to Japanese Hisashi Mizutori in 15.650.

China's youngster Zou Kai, who led the qualification, was a surprise sixth after staggering in his routine.

American star Anastasia Liukin still lacked a bit luck as she was only 0.050 points behind Semenova to take silver on uneven bars.

The 15-year-old Russian wooed judges with the highest difficulty of 7.2 and sky high flips, receiving 16.350 for the title.

The bronze medal went to China's newcomer Yang Yilin in 16.150, and defending champion Elizabeth Tweddle of Britain was fourth in 16.125.

(Xinhua News Agency September 9, 2007)