ROTTERDAM
Olympic champions China claimed a fourth straight men’s team title at the world gymnastics championships here on Thursday as a late tumble ended the gold-medal hopes of Asian rivals Japan.
The title-chase went down to the wire with the Chinese sealing victory when Japan’s Kazuhito Tanaka fell on the final rotation – the horizonal bar. The Kohei Uchimura-led Japanese finished 1.228 points behind to take silver with the bronze going to Germany in a repeat of the podium at the last world championships in Stuttgart three years ago.
Lead by Olympic rings champion Chen Yibing the Chinese were solid on all their six rotations and pulled ahead of Japan on the rings as sloppy landings by both Tanaka and Kenya Kobayashi left them trailing by two points.
The titleholders took a 0.794-point advantage on Japan going into a nail-biting final rotation at the Ahoy Arena with Germany 0.844 behind. But the Japanese knew their slim title hopes were over when Tanaka came off the horizontal bar, with China then stepping up to give an error free performance with former Olympic champion Teng Haibin sealing victory.
But China’s Feng Zhe insisted his team would have won even with a perfect performance by the Japanese. As well as Olympic veterans Teng and Chen, the Chinese team also included Feng, Yan Mingyong and newcomers Lu Bo and Zhang Chenglong.
Bo is also in with a shot at the all-around title on Friday as he qualified third behind defending champion Uchimura and Germany’s Philipp Boy.
Boy paid tribute to the Asian rivals as Germany’s search for their first team title at worlds continues. But he added that the medal would give him confidence on Friday.
The Chinese have now won the world title eight times in the past nine world championships, missing out in 2001 when Belarus won a surprise gold. The Unites States, meanwhile, failed to live up to their status as medal contenders as they lost ground after their opening rotation – the pommel horse – and finished off the podium in fourth.
The competition continues on Friday with the men’s and women’s all-around finals.
