China holds off Japan for third straight men's gymnastics team gold

NAGOYA, Japan, Sept 23 (Xinhua) -- China defended its men's team title in gymnastics at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Wednesday, claiming a third straight championship in the event.

The Chinese team of Zhang Boheng, Lan Xingyu, Zou Jingyuan, Sun Wei and Tian Hao won the title with 255.095 points, followed by Japan with 253.826 for silver and Chinese Taipei with 239.896 for bronze.

It was China's second gold medal here in gymnastics, following Zhang's men's all-around title on Monday.

The gap stayed tight in the opening floor exercise, where Japan's Tokyo Olympic all-around champion Daiki Hashimoto topped the field with 14.000, followed by China's Tian Hao with 13.966.

On pommel horse, Paris Olympic all-around champion Shinnosuke Oka, first up for Japan, fell off the apparatus and managed just 12.533. Hashimoto followed with a strong 14.466, but three solid routines from the Chinese trio kept China narrowly ahead on aggregate.

The crowd's excitement peaked during a scintillating rings battle between China and Japan, with neither side landing a dismount error as the two teams swept the top six spots. China's Lan Xingyu posted the event's top score of 15.200 - a 6.0 difficulty, 9.100 execution and 0.1 bonus - ahead of Japan's Kiichi Kaneta on 14.900.

On vault, Oka was the only gymnast among the competitors from the two teams to suffer a major error, while Hashimoto and Asian Games all-around champion Zhang both delivered strong routines, tying at 14.733 (Hashimoto later made a successful inquiry to add 0.1 points).

Zou Jingyuan, the Paris Olympic and four-time world champion on parallel bars, was in dominant form on the apparatus, scoring 15.400 on a 6.0 difficulty and 9.300 execution - a full 0.834 clear of second-placed Oka. China carried a 1.934-point cushion into the final rotation, high bar.

The horizontal bar competition swung back and forth: China's Sun, first up, suffered a fall, but Japan's Oka also faltered soon after. Hashimoto then delivered a near-flawless routine for 15.233.

Needing just 12.931 to seal the gold for China, Zhang - competing last - made sure there would be no repeat of his Paris Olympic heartbreak, scoring 14.200 to lift China to a final total of 255.095, 1.269 points clear of Japan.

Asked about Sun Wei's fall on the horizontal bar, China's team captain Zhang Boheng said the team's preparation had left them ready to absorb a setback without losing composure.

"We did extremely thorough, scientific preparation heading into the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games. Even when a small mistake happens, we don't panic - we adjust immediately," Zhang said at the post-competition press conference.

"Across the whole competition we had 18 routines to get through, and with that kind of workload, one or two slips are within the range we can accept. Sun is a veteran who holds himself to a very high standard, so we told him not to worry - we still had it in hand," Zhang added.

Zhang said the team title meant even more to him than his individual all-around gold two days earlier.

"We put out every bit of difficulty we had. We'd trained this at home countless times, all building toward this gold medal today. So when I finished my final routine, it wasn't just me who was excited - everyone was," Zhang said.