The title-defending Chinese gymnasts proved too much to their challengers despite a few occasional slip-ups.

　 Under the inspiration of a partisan crowd, China scored a runaway victory to retain their fourth straight title with nearly flawless execution in the men's team final of the 1999 world championships here on Tuesday.

　 The Chinese men showed top form which helped win a hat-trick of titles in last three championships, scoring a final total of 230.395 points.

　 China's arch-rival Russia, which overcame the sluggishness to finish second to China in the qualifier on Monday, kept on the heels of the defending champions but they had to settle for second with 228.145. Belarus came third in 227.631.

　 Earlier in the evening, defending champions Romania had to overcome a slipping start and rallied strongly to score 153.527 points to retain their women's team title, holding off early leader Russia to second in 153.209. China finished third with 152.423.

　 The Chinese men lived up to their reputation of the Dream Team with their unmatched execution and solid landing which could not win more ovation from the 8,000-capacity sell-out crowd.

　 Though Yang Wei flubbed in his landing from the vaulting horse and Lu Yufu nearly missed the horizontal bars, all this counted nothing to the hosts in their way to defending the title.

　 Huang Yubin, head coach of the men's team, showed his satisfaction with his charges despite some complaint with the start values in judging.

　 "We deserve the title, and the gymnasts have been true to their form, but our priority is the 2000 Olympics medal,"said Huang. "We don't think we can agree with the standard for judging the start value of routines. But anyway we will overcome all this to win the Olympics glory."

　 Zhang Jian, China's top gymnastics official, set his sight on the Olympics as he lavished his praises on the men's team.

　 "They are very good, technically and mentally, and they are where the Chinese gymnastics hope lies.

　 "But we will make greater efforts to win the Olympics competition, for we have won four straight titles but we are yet to win a team title in the Olympics.

　 "The reason we can keep strong is that we have depth and we have paid great attention to bringing out hopefuls. With the 2000 Olympics in our sight, we have begun our preparation for the 2004 Games, and even the 2008 Games," Zhang said in an post-competition interview.

　 The Chinese men entered the competition with a star-studded line-up which was rated as "the best ever for China".

　 "They are less than 20 years old on average and this is a team full of experience and drive. All of them are complete in techniques and free from injury. They are the best ever Chinese team for the world championships," said Chinese team leader Qian Kui.

　 The Chinese women gymnasts finished third with a line-up of world championships first-timers and only veteran Liu Xuan in the women's team competition.

　 In the dramatic women's team final, the Romanians took over the lead in their last rotation on the uneven bars and edged the Russians by 0.218 points.

　 "Uneven bars cost us the silver medal at the Olympic Games in Atlanta, we finished on the third place. Tonight, Uneven bars brought us the gold. There must be a destiny. we are too excited

　to realize what has happened," said Octavian Belu, the legend Romanian head coach.

　 Romanian women coach Bitang Maria also said: "We are very happy because we won the title. However, we could not forget our mistakes in the beam. Our gymnasts were too nervous."

　 The top favorite Romanian team stayed only in the fourth after the first apparatus on the beam, scoring a lower-than-expected 37.786 points.

　 But the Romanians led by world and Olympic champion Simona Amanar soon calmed down. They piled up their lead in the rest of the competition to capture their fourth title since 1994, 1995 and 1997.

　 The Russians wasted their title chance when the 1997 all-around champion Svetlana Khorkina fell off the beam on their last rotation for a poor 9.075 points.

　 After one day off on Wednesday, the individual all-round final will begin on Thursday.