Jiangsu successfully defended the men's gymnastics team title at China's 15th National Games in Zhaoqing on Wednesday, posting 328.957 points to edge out Hunan, while Zhejiang finished third.

The championship clash was framed well in advance, after Hunan topped qualifying ahead of reigning titleholders Jiangsu. The final then unfolded exactly as billed – a tight, drama‑fueled contest between two deep, well‑matched squads.

Hunan's roster was headlined by Olympic all-around and team event silver medalist Zhang Boheng, joined by experienced teammates like Liao Jialei and Yang Jiaxing.

Jiangsu countered with its own collection of international veterans: Sun Wei, Shi Cong, You Hao and young pommel horse specialist Hong Yanming.

The first rotation in the floor exercise set the tone. Both squads threw themselves into chasing the title, but paid the price with errors, and the scoreboard showed a sliver of a gap, with just 0.1 point separating the two sides.

The defining moment came on the pommel horse, where world champion Hong produced a score of 14.466 points, the highest single‑apparatus mark of the competition, giving Jiangsu some much-appreciated breathing room.

Inspired by Zhang, Hunan staged an intense pushback across the remaining four rotations. The team finished on top in both the parallel bars and horizontal bar, but repeated mistakes on other apparatus proved costly.

Hunan ultimately ended up with 327.024 points, unable to reel in the more consistent depth of Jiangsu, who emerged as back-to-back gold medalists.