Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Thanks to their excellent performance in the last two rounds of rotation, reigning world champions Japan rallied to take the men's team gold medal in gymnastics at the Rio Olympic Games here on Monday.

     Japan took their seventh Olympic men's team gold, scoring a total of 274.094 points. Russia trailed at 2.641 points behind to finish second. Defending champions China settled for bronze with 271.122 following a series of mistakes especially in subdivisions of rings and vault.

     Japan denied China the chance to win the title three times in a row after they were last crowned at Athens 2004.

     Japanese star Kohei Uchimura shrugged off a sloppy start in the qualification, when he fell off the high bar on Saturday. In the final Monday, He competed in all the six subdivisions and remained consistent with an average score of 15.266 points.

     "The team has finally won a gold medal. Winning gold at the Olympics is incredibly difficult. I feel great satisfaction," said the 27-year-old two-time all-round world champion.

     "Unlike the World Championships that is held every year, Olympics only come every four years. Winning at the Olympics is about controlling your emotion and staying in good shape, which are big challenges for us," Uchimura added.

     Koji Yamamuro fell off from the pommel horse in the first rotation which was the only notable error for Japan.

     Russia took an early lead after the first subdivision and went on to keep their advantage. They still maintained a margin of 1.300 points at the end of the fourth rotation round. But the Japanese were almost flawless in their last two subdivisions of high bar and floor, earning 92.597 points in total as they surpassed Russia to snatch the gold.

     China's You Hao scored 16.166 points in parallel bars, which was the highest score of the day, but he stumbled in landing and stepped out of the cushion in the rings round and only got 14.400 points in what is one of his strongest apparatus.

     "It is my first Olympic Games. I really wanted to show my best level but it seems I just can not find the right rhythm," said You, the reigning world champion in parallel bars. Enditem

Source:
courtesy of XINHUA NEWS AGENCY

by Xinhua News Agency

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