China extends dominance at gymnastics men's team

 LONDON, July 30 (Xinhua) -- Chinese gymnasts cleared doubts that followed their sixth-place finish in the preliminary, winning the Olympic men's team gold in a dominant¹ fashion on Monday.

The Chinese pulled off a nearly perfect performance to garner² 275.997 points, beating Japan's by 4.045 points.

Japan, initially³ placed in fourth place, picked the silver medal after winning an appeal against the pommel horse score on Kohei Uchimura.

Host gymnasts dropped from second to third for bronze, Britain's first team gymnastics medal for a century.

China made a series of mistakes in the qualifying, but did nothing wrong in the final, which drew media suspicions that the defending champions had hidden their strength.

"There is no hiding at all in the qualification," said Zou Kai, the triple gold medalist in the Beijing Olympics. "Who would like to stay back in the Olympic qualifying? If we do so, we lose chance in individual finals."

Chinese Olympic debutant Zhang Chenglong said he had learned how to deal with stress.

"I did not feel a lot of pressure in the final in spite of our mistakes in the qualifying," he said. "We had beaten Japan before. We are just fighting the old opponents."

China ranked sixth in the qualifying and Japan fifth, making the two arch rivals in the same rotation⁴ in the final.

Japan, silver medalists in Beijing, started their challenge from rings, which earned 0.8 points ahead of China.

In the second rotation of vault⁵, China gained their lead once for all as all three gymnasts completed the discipline before Japan.

Japan's Koji Yamamuro banged on his knees and arms on his landing and had to be carried off by team medical staff.

China overtook Japan by 1.542 points after the vault rotation and never looked back.

Uchimura, world all-around champion, was disappointed with his fault in the pommel.

"I am disappointed with myself," said Uchimura.

"We know we need to avoid mistakes if we want to beat China, but it's so difficult," he added.

"We have been watching Chinese since the Beijing Olympics. They are strong despite the retirement⁶ of (the Olympic all-around winner) Yang Wei."

Team USA, who led the qualification, was out of the podium early as Samuel Mikulak tumbled on floor and Danell Leyva fell off the pommel. Igor Pakhomenko's awkward landing on vault denied the Americans any medal chance. They finished fifth.

Uchimura was initially given around 13 points in pommel horse, but it was raised to 14.166. The change put Japan in second place, well over Britain and Ukraine.

"To be honest, I regret the result," said Uchimura. "But I am happy that we were promoted to the silver medal."

"For Ukraine, they think they can win a medal. I say sorry, but it's strange to say sorry for this, it's just a problem of scoring system."

Britain managed a place on the podium thanks to their strong performance on floor, which won them the apparatus⁷ high of 46.132 points.

1 dominant   

adj.支配的，统治的；占优势的；显性的；n.主因，要素，主要的人(或物)；显性基因

参考例句：

• The British were formerly dominant in India.英国人从前统治印度。
• She was a dominant figure in the French film industry.她在法国电影界是个举足轻重的人物。

2 garner   

v.收藏；取得

参考例句：

• He has garnered extensive support for his proposals.他的提议得到了广泛的支持。
• Squirrels garner nuts for the winter.松鼠为过冬储存松果。

3 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。

4 rotation   

n.旋转；循环，轮流

参考例句：

• Crop rotation helps prevent soil erosion.农作物轮作有助于防止水土流失。
• The workers in this workshop do day and night shifts in weekly rotation.这个车间的工人上白班和上夜班每周轮换一次。

5 vault   

n.拱形圆顶，地窖，地下室

参考例句：

• The vault of this cathedral is very high.这座天主教堂的拱顶非常高。
• The old patrician was buried in the family vault.这位老贵族埋在家族的墓地里。

6 retirement   

n.退休，退职

参考例句：

• She wanted to enjoy her retirement without being beset by financial worries.她想享受退休生活而不必为金钱担忧。
• I have to put everything away for my retirement.我必须把一切都积蓄起来以便退休后用。

7 apparatus   

n.装置，器械；器具，设备

参考例句：

• The school's audio apparatus includes films and records.学校的视听设备包括放映机和录音机。
• They had a very refined apparatus.他们有一套非常精良的设备。