Photo: Cui Meng/GT

China closed the Chengdu World Games on a triumphant note, finishing first on both the gold and overall medal tables with 36 gold, 17 silver and 11 bronze medals.    

Sport climbing is a vivid emblem of the host country's surge. In the women's speed final, Paris 2024 Olympic silver medalist Deng Lijuan edged teammate Qin Yumei by one hundredth of a second, 6.40 to 6.41, with Zhou Yafei taking bronze to complete a home sweep. 

On the men's side, Chu Shouhong roared to gold in 4.80 seconds, while Long Jianguo added bronze - results that underlined both veteran poise and rising-star momentum in front of raucous Tianfu Park crowds. 

Chengdu also served as a laboratory for the sport's next chapter. The World Games marked the debut of "Speed 4," a head-to-head four-lane format that condenses reaction time and punishes the slightest hesitation. Long rebounded to take the men's Speed 4 crown in 4.74 seconds, while Indonesia's world champion Desak Made Rita Kusuma Dewi won the women's title ahead of China's Qin. 

The finale brought another first as team relays took center stage. China swept the men's and women's Speed Relay titles to close the climbing program, with the women's quartet lowering the freshly minted world record - confirmation that the country's dominance now extends from individual to team formats. 

In trampoline, Hu Yicheng and Zhang Xinxin delivered an exquisitely synchronized routine to clinch women's synchronized gold on 51.340 points, fending off seasoned pairs from Japan and Canada at the Dong'an Lake Sports Park Multifunctional Gymnasium. In acrobatic gymnastics, the women's group representing China, Gu Quanjia, Ding Wenyan and Ma Yixing, delivered a near-perfect performance to capture gold, earning a total score of 29.230

Roller sports added both variety and volume. The hosts claimed their first roller sports gold when Chengdu native Zhang Hao won the men's speed slalom in an all-Chinese final. Zhang then doubled up by capturing the men's classic slalom title a day later, while teammate Zhu Siyi topped the women's classic podium.

Breaking delivered a different kind of sweep - and a street-culture crescendo. Headlined by China's Olympic bronze medalist Liu Qingyi, the Chinese breaking team captured both the men's and women's titles, converting a packed downtown square into a block-party stage and riding the energy of a domestic scene that has matured quickly since the discipline's elevation to global multi-sport showcases. 

In flag football, the women's team secured their first international victory with a 28-22 comeback win over Japan, despite being formed just three months prior.

In cue sports, snooker emerged as a particularly historic chapter for China. Veteran Xiao Guodong claimed gold in the men's 15-reds event as his triumph marked China's first-ever men's snooker gold at the World Games. 

On the women's side, 22-year-old Bai Yulu captured China's inaugural women's snooker gold at the Games, delivering a standout showing that underscored her standing and foreshadowed her ascent as a dominant force in women's snooker after winning the world championship title twice already.