China won the gold medal of the men's team event at the Gymnastics World Championships Tuesday in Anaheim, California.
The Chinese gymnasts collected a total of 171.996 points for the top honour, ranking first on four of the six apparatus, namelypommel horse, vault, parallel bars and the horizontal bar. They also finished second on the floor exercise, the opening event of the finals.
The Chinese squad was composed of four Olympic winning team members of Li Xiaopeng, Yang Wei, Huang Xu and Xing Aowei, together with two newcomers of Xiao Qin and Teng Haibin.
This was the sixth world title for the Chinese men during the 100-year history of the world gymnastics, following their victories in 1983, 1994, 1995, 1997 and 1999.
"I felt pressure prior to the competitions because there are several newcomers in our squad,"said Chinese head coach Huang Yubin, "And I am very happy for their steady performance and the eventual championship title tonight."
The United States finished second with 171.121 points as they resorted to a successful stragety by performing more easier routines to ensure a more smooth performance on home turf, while many gymnasts from other teams committed mistakes during their tough competitions.
Japan, who led the preliminaries after skipping the 2001 worlds,took the bronze with 170.708, followed by Russia (168.771), Romania (167.909), South Korea (166.283), France (165.546) and Ukraine (165.108).