Yang Hak-seon

Olympic gold medalist Yang Hak-seon defended his spot as the world's best vaulter at his first international competition this year.

Yang won the gold medal in men's vault with 14.500 points on Monday (Korean time) at the Artistic Gymnastics World Cup in France, beating Vietnam's Nguyen Ha Thanh, who earned 13.666 points.

This was his first event since the level of difficulty for his signature technique dropped one point under a new scoring system for men's gymnastics.

But Yang was able to win an overwhelming victory even without performing his triple-twist handspring front somersault that won him the gold in London.