China climbed out the abyss, their fifth place at the Athens Olympics a distant memory, as they won the men's team title at Aarhus gymnastics world championships in Denmark yesterday, scoring 277.775 points.

Russia took the silver with 275.400 points by notching a win on pommels, and second place on the parallel bars and the high bar.

Japan won the high bar with 45.050 points despite a fall by all-around champion Tomita Hiroyuki, who took only 13.850, costing Japan the opportunity to finish second and making them settle for the bronze.

China and Japan began on floor, Russia and Romania on pommels, Canada and Germany on rings, Switzerland and Belarus on vault.

Both Chinese Zou Kai (14.050) and Japanese Hiroyuki Tomita (14.575) started with faults by stepping out of the floor area.

Russia scored high on pommels (45.350) before the Romanians opened their team-account on the same apparatus (44.700). Canada's total on the rings was 44.575 compared to Germany's 45.300 points. Switzerland marked 47.675 on vault, while Belarus earned 47.000 on the same apparatus.

China won the gold with 277.775 points after six disciplines, winning the rings with 47.625, the vault with 48.900 and parallel bars with 47.125 points.

"We are here to set the first step on the road to 2008 Olympics and we proved that we are still the best," said Huang Yubin, head coach of the Chinese team.

"Next, we will focus on stability, for in the new system of all three competitors' marks counted, we cannot afford mistakes if we want to win the gold. We made a few mistakes, but in a whole, we did a quite good job. We brought young gymnasts here for them to feel the atmosphere and pressure here, so mistakes are something understandable," added Huang with a long-lost smile.

China's veteran Yang Wei said he felt the pressure after his errors on the pommel horse.

"I am the only experienced person that anchors the team, so what I need to do is to set an example for them. After dropping from the horse, I just felt the embarrassment and remorse, but I told myself I had to hold on for the following apparatuses. Fortunately, I was getting better and better," said Yang, a member of the 2000 Olympic team champions.

"My ultimate aim is to win in the Beijing Olympic Games, I think, otherwise, I would probably have retired after the 2000 Sydney Olympics. I don't know whether I can be qualified in 2008 since China gets a lot of talented gymnasts and everything depends on the exact situation in the last moment. What I need to do is of course to continue a systematic training and prolong my form until the Olympics come," said Yang, who will be 29 in 2008.

Pommel horse world champion Xiao Qin of China scored the best with 16.075 points. China's veteran Yang Wei led the parallel bars and vault with 16.100 and 16.575 points respectively. Another Chinese Chen Yibing topped the rings with 16.500 points while Japan's Eiichi Sekiguchi scored 15.700 points atop the high bar.

Romania was in fourth with 272.225 points; Belarus in fifth with 272.050, Canada in sixth with 270.350, Germany in seventh with 270.025, Switzerland in eighth with 268.025.

On the women's side, China, finishing fourth at the Anaheim worlds, somewhat over-shadowed the US blaze in the second-day's qualifiers by taking three top positions in individual apparatus and only trailing US by 3.800 points despite a few blunders. The US scored 243.325 points to lead the qualification matches.

Yang Wei

Xiao Qin

Feng Jing

(Xinhua News Agency October 18, 2006)