Hambuechen sets bar high for Beijing

By Sonia Oxley

LONDON (Reuters) - Fabian Hambuechen has one gold medal missing from his horizontal bar collection and he is determined to pick it up at the Beijing Olympics.

The 20-year-old German, European and world champion on the apparatus has set himself clear goals for the Games.

"I now have a good feeling about the Olympics. I want to reach the team final, all-round final and obviously I want a gold on the bar," he told Reuters after scooping three medals at the European championships in May.

Nicknamed "Turnfloh" (gymnast flea), the 1.63-metre Hambuechen gave the home crowd plenty to cheer in Stuttgart last year when he won a medal of each color at the worlds.

A team bronze and a silver in the all-round, as well as the bar success, highlighted his transformation from the talented teenager who was still finding his feet at the 2004 Athens Olympics to a serious contender in 2008.

In the past four years, Hambuechen has ditched his glasses in favor of contact lenses and his gravity-defying routines have built a medal collection including three European golds.

He is favorite for the horizontal bar title and could even push China's hotly tipped Yang Wei in the all-round competition.

Voted German sportsman of the year in 2007, Hambuechen has become something of a pin-up with his blonde hair and cheeky smile if the number of websites offering topless photos of him are anything to go by.

The crowds of girls hunting for his autograph have grown but he has taken all the attention in his stride. Away from training, he lists his hobbies as driving cars fast and listening to loud music.

At competitions, he often attempts more technically complex routines on the horizontal bar than his rivals. He has said he can do even better and, judging by some of his release-and-catch maneuvers, the sky really is the limit in Beijing.

(Editing by Pritha Sarkar)

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