Olympic Newsdesk -- China Reigns at Gymnastics Worlds; Reelections for Squash, Surfing

China Finishes Strong At Gymnastics Worlds

A total of 10 gold medals were up for grabs over the weekend in individual events at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.

The apparatus finals wrapped up a week’s worth of action at Rotterdam’s Ahoy Arena. Russia’s women won team gold Thursday and China’s men bested the field Friday.

Saturday saw Eleftherios Kosmidis of Greece win men’s floor exercise, Krisztian Berki of Hungary men’s pommel horse and Yibing Chen of China men’s rings.

Meanwhile, Alicia Sacramone of the U.S. won women’s vault and Elizabeth Tweddle of Great Britain took the uneven bars.

History was made a day later when Thomas Bouhail won France’s first-ever gold on men’s vault and Lauren Mitchell became Australia’s first-ever female gymnastics world champion with a floor exercise win.

Also Sunday, Ana Porgras of Romania took women’s balance beam, Zhe Feng of China men’s parallel bars and Chenglong Zhang of China men’s horizontal bar.

With a silver Sunday in the floor exercise, newly crowned all-around champion Aliya Mustafina became the first gymnast since 2001 to earn five medals in a single world champs.

China topped the week’s medal tally with nine total medals, four of them gold. Russia finished second, and the U.S. followed in third. Japan and Great Britain rounded out the top five.

PyeongChang 2018 Lands Largest Sponsor Yet

PyeongChang has secured a sponsorship deal with Nonghyup, Korea's National Agriculture Cooperative Federation.Nonghyup is the bid city’s largest sponsor yet.

Nonghyup will give PyeongChang 2018 nearly $890,000 in support of its bid to host the 2018 Winter Olympics.

"To host the 2018 Winter Games in the Gangwon Province would bring immense pride to the region and would bring a number of benefits to the local economy and its people," Byung-seok Hahm, Nonghyup's Gangwon division president, said in a statement.

Nonghyup gave PyeongChang 2018 half of the money Monday.

Boost for Squash's Olympic Ambitions

N Ramachandran has pledged to continue his quest to get squash on the Olympic program after his re-election as president of the World Squash Federation.

Member nations of the WSF re-elected him for a second term at their AGM in Chennai, India over the weekend. He was unopposed after the withdrawal of challenger Natalie Grainger from the U.S. earlier in the week.

"After two years in which I have prioritized our Olympic bid along with stabilizing the WSF finances, I am honored that the membership has seen fit to wish me to continue to build from this platform with our new management group," Ramachandran said in a statement.

The sport's ambition to join the Olympics was underlined during two days of meetings before the federation's 40th AGM, which was attended by 45 member nations. Presentations on WSF strategy included a focus on furthering the sport's Olympic ambitions, marketing, growing squash's media profile and rules and development.

Heather Deayton (Hong Kong) was re-elected for her third two-year term as a vice president, while Chris Stahl (England) was also voted in to serve a second term. Gerard DeCourcy (New Zealand) lost out to Mohamed El Menshawy (Egypt) in the election for the third vice president position.

Last October, squash lost out to golf and Rugby Sevens in the seven-sport bid race to join the Olympic program. Squash was one of two sports that went before the IOC Session four years ago in Singapore, but it failed to win enough votes to be added to the roster of Olympic sports.

Surf’s Up for Longtime President

Fernando Aguerre will serve another four years as president of the International Surfing Association.

The ISA re-elected Aguerre to a seventh consecutive term Friday at its biennial general meeting in Punta Hermosa, Peru.

He was first elected in 1994 and has since been re-elected six times.

"It is the greatest honor to have the support of all the federations and the millions of surfers around the world," Aguerre said in a statement.

"Helping the federations realize their dreams and plans and becoming an Olympic Sport makes me look forward to four more years as president."

Surfing won IOC recognition under Aguerre’s tenure, a victory he hopes the sport can build on.

Aguerre met with IOC president Jacques Rogge in December to discuss surfing in the Olympics.

The earliest surfing could possiblyjoin the Olympic program is 2020.

Olympic Rowing Champion, 51

British rower Andy Holmes died Sunday of what doctors think was a bacterial infection most associated with watersport athletes. He was 51.

Weil's disease is contracted from contact with water contaminated by the urine of infected animals.

Holmes fell ill a week ago, The Daily Telegraph reported, and passed away Sunday evening while in intensive care.

The two-time Olympian won gold in the coxless pair and bronze in the coxed pair at the Seoul Summer Games, both with rowing legend Steve Redgrave. He also won gold in the coxed four in Los Angeles four years earlier.

Media Watch

The death of U.S. open water swimmer Fran Crippen has the attention of mainstream media.

NBC Sports swimming analyst Rowdy Gaines called the high water temperature Saturday in Dubai "an accident waiting to happen" Monday morning on The Today’s Show, and the network’s Philadelphia affiliate spoke Sunday with Fran’s sister Maddy Crippen, who placed sixth in the 400m IM in Sydney.On Monday, she told ABC News her brother had for months been expressing concerns about the safety measures in place at such events.

Written by Matthew Grayson and Isia Wilcox.