Yang Wei of China has won the all-around gold medal in men’s gymnastics, finally getting the Olympic title that has eluded him for eight years.

Yang, the two-time defending world champion, finished with 94.575 points yesterday, nearly three points ahead of Kohei Uchimura of Japan. Benoit Caranobe of France won the bronze.

Yang had finished second to Alexei Nemov in 2000, and fell apart at the Athens Olympics. But this one was never in doubt.

With every day bringing another gold medal, gymnastics is fast becoming China’s domain at the Beijing Olympics. And no one is a bigger star than Yang.

After eight years of waiting, he’s certainly earned it.

“Today was perfect,” Yang said. “I felt tired before the competition, but after it I feel relaxed.”

As the adoring crowd chanted “Yang Wei! Yang Wei” he pounded his chest with his fist. When his final mark finally did go up, the crowd went wild and Yang wanted more, cupping his hands to his ears to ask for more. They did, of course, cheering lustily for the man who could rank right up there with Yao Ming and Liu Xiang in star power. The only difference right now, Yang’s got two gold medals, the other two guys are still waiting.

“Yang was very uneasy going into his third Olympics,” said Chen Yibing, Yang’s teammate on the China squad that won the team gold two days ago. “But he handled it like a champion and I respect him very much.”

Yang was dismissively referred to as “the silver collector” after he finished second to Nemov at the Sydney Olympics and second to Paul Hamm at the 2003 world championships. The gold was his for the taking in Athens when Hamm fell midway through the meet, but Yang couldn’t close the deal. He fell on high bar, and dropped all the way to seventh.

“We have been working hard for eight years for this medal,” China coach Huang Yubin said. “It’s worth is just below the team’s gold medal.”

It is China’s second men’s all-around gold. Li Xiaoshuang won in 1996.

Yang does difficult skills on every event, and there were a few flaws. He slipped on a landing on floor, both feet sliding out of bounds. And he took small steps on his landings on vault and still rings.

But he had built such a commanding lead that he went to high bar, his weakest event, only needing to show up. It was something of anti-climax, as he got off-balance on a pirouette and slammed into the bar on his catch of a release move.

Yang’s main contenders never really made it a fight. Hiroyuki Tomita, the only other man to win the world title since Athens, peeled off still rings on his dismount and finished fourth. Fabian Hambuechen, the silver medalist at world’s last year, fell from high bar, his signature event, and wound up seventh.

Yang Tae-young, who caused such a stir at the Athens Games when he won a bronze medal that he thought should have been gold, dropped to eighth after a dismal pommel horse routine.

Uchimura made an impressive recovery after falling twice off pommel horse, his second event. Just 19, he is one of the newest members of the Japanese team, and could be a big factor in 2012.

Caranobe had never come close to winning an all-around medal, and seemed as surprised as everyone else that he was on the podium.

“It’s very special,” Caranobe said. “Even in my dreams, I never said I would have a bronze medal.”