China seal men's world team title

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China overcame the absence of three former Olympic champions to defend their men's team title at the world gymnastics championships in Denmark.

China, with Huang Xu, Li Xiaopeng and Teng Haibin missing through injury, scored 277.775 points.

That put them 2.375 ahead of Russia (275.400) with Japan achieving 274.800.

All three teams had errors across the exercises, including China's Zou Kai falling from the apparatus, but it did not cost his team a seventh worlds win.

It did not look good for the Chinese when Zou Kai and Liang Fuliang made errors on the floor exercise and Yang Wei tumbed on the second rotation on the pommel horse.

However, Japan also found it hard to find their feet with Tomita and Takuya Nakase being penalised for stepping out during the floor routine.

Tomita fell again from the high bar to end Japan's challenge, despite teammates Eiichi Sekiguchi and Hisashi Mizutori finishing 1-2 on the apparatus.

That enabled China to hold onto their lead and make up for the disappointment of their fifth-place finish at the 2004 Athens Games to lay the groundwork for their Olympic bid at home in two years time.