Yang to sell his silver for quake victims

BEIJING (Reuters) - Olympic all-round champion Yang Wei has become so used to scooping gold medals, he did not know what to do when he actually won a silver.

So he decided to put it to good use.

"I want to auction my silver medal to give the money to the Sichuan province to help them so that this silver medal can fulfill its value," said Yang, who looked rather bemused on the podium as he closely examined the silver medal he won in the rings final behind fellow Chinese Chen Yibing on Monday.

"The IOC donated money to Sichuan province and at the time I made up my mind to make my own contribution."

Three months ago more than 70,000 died in a massive tremor in the southwestern Chinese province.

Yang won a gold with the Chinese men's team at the 2000 Sydney Games and replicated that feat in Beijing before winning the coveted all-around crown last Thursday.

(Reporting by Pritha Sarkar; editing by Jeremy Laurence)