Russia wrests gold from China's grasp

STUTTGART, Germany - The horizontal bar slipped agonizingly from Sun Wei's grasp and with it China's chances of retaining the men's team title at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Stuttgart on Wednesday.

In a nail-biting finale, China was three solid routines away from glory but Sun's error on his opening Tkatchev release ultimately allowed Russia to win its first team gold at the worlds and first at a major meet since 1994, with a total of 261.726 points.

China's 260.729 was enough for silver ahead of Japan (258.159).