In outrageous about-face, Chinese men clinch World team title

The Chinese — Sun Wei, Yang Jiaxing, You Hao, Zhang Boheng and Zou Jingyuan — were able to put a rotten qualification day behind them as they eclipsed Japan and Great Britain for their 10th consecutive team medal at the World Championships and first title since 2018.

A Gymnastics tradition steeped in gold

Reeling after a mistake-filled team and individual qualification Monday, China was a team transformed on Wednesday. Gone was the group that made so many opening round errors; in their place stood a team as impenetrable as any the People’s Republic has fielded during a long run of golden performances dating back to the early 1980s.

With 20 World team medals, 13 of them gold, China is the most successful men’s team in Gymnastics history. It holds more than double the number of team titles as Japan, which won five in a row between 1962 and 1978.

Powered by stellar routines from the likes of Olympic gold medallist Zou Jingyuan, the top scorer of the day on Still Rings and Parallel Bars, and 2021 World All-Around champion Zhang Boheng, China posted highest team scores on Pommel Horse, Still Rings, Parallel Bars, and Horizontal Bar.

They tied with Japan for the top mark on Vault en route to a decisive four-point victory, 257.858 points to 253.395.

“Chinese men's team Gymnastics is rising again,” said Zhang. “In qualification, we faced some difficulties in adapting to the weather and apparatus. We obviously had mistakes but after two days of reviews, we put out some good performances today. I want to say it was a really brilliant competition. All the teams in the final did really good performances, and there’s a great future for Gymnastics.”

After strong start, Japan fades to silver

With silver, the Japanese — Doi Ryosuke, Kamoto Yuya, Hashimoto Daiki, Tanigawa Kakeru and Tanigawa Wataru — claimed their tenth consecutive team medal. The top qualifiers opened well on Floor Exercise to lead for a brief moment, but could not match China’s strength elsewhere.

“We were nervous,” Doi confirmed. “It is my first time at the World Championships, and now that I’ve had that experience, I’m feeling that if I can do the performance I’m capable of I can compete – both as a team and as an individual.”

‘The comeback of my life’: Britain bounces back for bronze

Pommel Horse, vicious to nearly every team in the M&S Bank Arena Wednesday, proved a difference maker. Among those to struggle were eventual bronze medallists Great Britain, who dropped to eighth at the halfway point of the competition after a disastrous start on the apparatus.

Like CD China, the British underwent their own dramatic transformation, but Joe Fraser, James Hall, Jake Jarman, Giarnni Regini-Moran, and Courtney Tulloch did it mid-meet. Clutch performances on Parallel Bars by Fraser and Horizontal Bar from Hall elevated them to a bronze that had seemed impossible only an hour earlier.

“It is the comeback of my life,” declared Fraser, who had multiple problems in his routine before contributing key scores in the turnaround. “The team and I never doubted ourselves once. We pulled together through the hard times; we were there for each other on the highs. This will be up there for the rest of my life.”

Britain’s men thus doubled the number of medals they have won at the World Championships. Bronze in Liverpool follows silver in Glasgow from 2015.

Suddenly a contender, Italy satisfied with fourth

Italy, aiming to earn their first men’s World team medal in 109 years, were on course to take bronze before facing the Pommel Horse during the final rotation. They finished fourth with 245.995, 1.2 points behind Britain but ahead of the USA, Spain, Brazil, and the Republic of Korea.

“Three years ago we were in Stuttgart, at the World Championships before the Olympic Games. The team didn’t qualify for the Olympic Games, and now we are here, fourth in the world. That’s incredible,” said Nicola Bartolini, the 2021 World champion on Floor Exercise.

“Gymnastics is like a roller coaster — sometimes you go up and sometimes you go down. We are happy at the same time – if we’re third or fourth, it’s not important.”

By dint of the results, China, Japan, and Great Britain have each qualified a team to compete at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris (FRA).