China men's gymnastics team win 2018 Artistic Worlds

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In the finals of men's team for the 48th Artistic Gymnastics World Championships – Doha 2018, the China's team composed by Xiao Ruoteng, Zou Jingyuan, Deng Shudi, Sun Wei and Lin Chaopan won the gold medals by a total of 256.634 points, qualified for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

The silver and bronze medals went to Russia and Japan respectively, as the runner-ups had just a margin of 0.049 point compared with China.

This Championship is the first qualifying event for the Artistic Gymnastics item of Tokyo 2020, and the top three teams for each of men's and women's teams would have the qualification for team event in Tokyo.

China, Russia and Japan men's national gymnastics teams pose on the podium for the 2018 FIG Artistic Gymnastics Championships at Aspire Dome, Doha, Qatar, October 29, 2018. /VCG Photo

China women's team were also qualified by finishing third, as the US and Russia exceeded.

In the men's team final, China were grouped with Russia. The Chinese side didn't perform well in the first two items – Xiao slipped to the ground for the floor exercise, Lin and Deng also made some little mistakes, while Sun dropped from apparatus for pommel horse.

Fortunately, the Chinese young men then performed well for still rings and vault.

Sun Wei of China competes in the men's team still rings for the 2018 FIG Artistic Gymnastics Championships at Aspire Dome, Doha, Qatar, October 29, 2018. /VCG Photo

In the parallel bars item, Russian gymnast Artur Dalaloyan dropped from apparatus when went onto the bars. And the following Zou added the difficulty degree of his action from 6.6 to 7.0, and gave out a 16.200-point result to let China come from behind and surpass Russia by nearly one point.

In the game-deciding item horizontal bar, Lin didn't went onto the bar perfectly and China's last presenting athlete Xiao dropped by accident to just get 12.600 points. Xiao verged to cry and kept away from the following camera.

Dramatically, the last occurring gymnast of Russia Nikita Nogorny didn't withstand the pressure and even made a graver mistake.

When the final results were announced, the China men's team relived the heavy load as the Russia side despaired in tears.

Artur Dalaloyan of Russia cries after losing the goal by 0.1 point at the men's team final for the 2018 FIG Artistic Gymnastics Championships at Aspire Dome, Doha, Qatar, October 29, 2018. /VCG Photo

China artistic gymnastics team leader Ye Zhennan told Xinhua, "The result was satisfying but the process was filled with cliffhangers."

From this competition, China men's team see clearly their bitter rivals in Tokyo."We got lower marks for our weak items. Such as in floor exercise, we should improve our stamina and the success rate of actions, and enforce the stability of landing."

Ye added, "Young gymnasts must have better anti-pressure ability, and the substitute team shall be larger."

Currently, the world men's gymnastics area was dominated mainly by the three countries as the Tokyo Olympics will be held in Japan, and Russia's young omnipotent gymnasts grow up quickly, China should be more cautious and diligent.

Source(s): Xinhua News Agency