Members of Chinese men's team wave to the audience on the Medal ceremony after claiming the gold medal of the men's team of Gymnastics Artistic at the 15th Asian Games in Doha, Qatar, Dec. 2, 2006.(Xinhua Photo) Photo Gallery >>>

DOHA, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- China made the stunning ninth consecutive win in Asiad men's gymnastics team competition in Dohaon Saturday, beating arch rival Japan with 377.100 points.

    China featured its "dream team" back from Aarhus gymnastic worlds where they upset Russia by 2.375 points to snatch the team title. Japan finished third in Aarhus for two serious errors made by all-around specialist Hiroyuki Tomita.

    In Doha, Japan was downed by China again with a gap of 4.05 points and South Korea achieved 371.500 points to stand third.

    Although Chinese former Olympic champions Huang Xu, Li Xiaopeng and Teng Haibin did not come due to injury, the Chinese men's gymnastic team dominated the Asiad arena.

    "I am very relaxed during the match. I don't think it's a surprise at all to win the team title as we just committed to our training after the world championships and our coach arranged good preparation for the Asian Games," said Yang Wei, the newly-crowned triple world champion.

    "I don't think the number of gold is that important, but you need to learn something from the match and learn how to get strongfor next match," said Yang.

    Chinese head coach Huang Yubin was satisfied with the team's performance. "We fully showed our strength and our spirit in the competition," said Huang.

    "But the Asian Games can only be regarded as a mid-term test, and the real challenge will come at the Beijing Olympic Games in which we will give all of our ginger to win."

    Huang tipped Yang Wei as the favorite for all-around gold here after the qualification round. "Yang Wei has an edge over Tomita at the moment and is more likely to win Monday's all-around," Huang predicted.

    Yang Wei, the all-round champion at Aarhus worlds, is in the first place, followed by Tomita, after the Asiad all-around qualification. The two rivals will replay the scenario of Aarhus on Monday's matchup.

    With Aarhus and Doha victories, the Chinese men's gymnastic team has walked out of the misery from the 2004 Athens Olympic Games in which it finished only fifth.

    As for Japan, another men's gymnastics powerhouse in Asia and the world, the second position is definitely not their aim.

    "On one hand, I think the result is acceptable, but on the other hand, I am disappointed with the silver for we came for gold.I made mistakes, so I just feel sorry at the moment," said Kenya Kobayashi.

    "I want to get gold medal, but we are not as strong as China. The Asian Games gave us a test and let us understand that we have to do better," Ryosuke Baba said.

    "On October's Aarhus gymnastic worlds, we also lost to China. It's not a problem we could resolve within such a short time, so we just need to prepare for the next competition," Shun Kuwahara said.

    "We had problems with our landing at the Aarhus worlds and the same thing happened here again. Our landing is not as good as thatof Chinese gymnasts, so we need to close the gap with China and establish us with no mistakes," Hisashi Mizutori explained.

    "The gap between China and Japan is a score. I think that's the problem and we have to improve our difficulty if we want to beat China," Hiroyuki Tomita concluded.

    In today's team final, the fourth to the eighth finishers were DPR Korea (359.500), Kazakhstan (350.600), Chinese Taipei (345.900), Malaysia (336.000) and Iran (329.100).

    China is likely to prevail in men's individual events by leading five apparatus. In qualification, teenager Zou Kai topped the floor exercise; Yang Wei headed vault and parallel bars; Xiao Qin and Yang Wei finished first two in pommel horse, while Chen Yibing and Yang Wei also placed one-two on rings.

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