By Ken Marantz
OCA Media
Nagoya, Japan, September 23, 2026: With each landing stuck by a Japanese competitor, the crescendo of cheers from the home crowd grew a little louder. But it just wasn’t enough to stop the Chinese juggernaut.
China maintained its iron grip on the men’s team title in gymnastics at the Asian Games on Wednesday, compiling 255.095 points to fend off Japan by just over a point in a thrilling competition at Nagoya City General Gymnasium.
Zhang Boheng, winner of the all-around gold on Monday, combined with Sun Wei, Tian Hao, Zou Jingyuan and Lan Xingyu to give China its third straight Asian Games gold and 13th out of 14 overall.
“Today I had very high expectations,” said Zhang, who capped a somewhat bizarre sequence of events in the horizontal bar with a solid routine to clinch the gold. “In China, the team competition is very important.
“We really worked hard for this competition. Our final goal was the gold medal and I’m happy we could finish with a good result.”
The Japanese quintet of Daiki Hashimoto, Shinnosuke Oka, Tomoharu Tsunogai, Shoma Tsukiyama and Kiichi Kaneta finished second with 254.026 points as the host nation was relegated to its ninth silver medal overall.
Chinese Taipei, led by a sparkling performance by Tang Chia-hung on the horizontal bar, emerged from a three-way competition with Kazakhstan and Korea to take home the bronze with 239.896 points.
Uncharacteristically, Paris Olympic champion Oka, the all-around silver medalist on Monday, proved to be the weak link for Japan. He committed errors on three of the six apparatus, leaving him with two of the three scores below 13 points posted by the top two teams all afternoon.
“It is a very frustrating result, and I feel the frustration of not having been able to do my own routines fully,” said Oka, who was nursing a back injury.
Oka’s mistakes, combined with a standout performance each by two of China’s specialists, helped China build what seemed to be a substantial lead heading into the final event, the horizontal bar.
But fate stepped in and offered Japan a sliver of an opening. Leadoff competitor Sun Wei slipped off the bar and wobbled on his landing for a score of 12.500 – only for Oka to follow by slipping off the bar himself and settling for a score of 12.666.
And yet, Japan was still not done. Tokyo Olympic all-around and horizontal bar champion Hashimoto, the last Japanese competitor, stepped up and gave an exciting, flawless performance for 15.233 points to give the host nation new life.
That meant Zhang, as the final competitor, needed to score better than 13.131 to secure the gold for China. The Paris all-around silver medalist came through, adding 14.200 to the tally that sparked joyous celebrations among him and his teammates.
“I was prepared for anything to happen, and I will try my best for the team,” Zhang said.
While Zhang was the lone member of the Chinese team who competed on all six apparatus, the triumph can be credited to two members who saw limited but vital action.
Lan, a former world champion and the reigning Asian Games champion in the rings, lived up to his reputation in his specialty by scoring 15.200 points. That helped propel China into the lead after three events that it never relinquished.
Not to be outdone, Zou confirmed his credentials as a two-time Olympic and four-time world champion in the parallel bars with a score of 15.400 points, the highest score of the entire afternoon.
“We thought the source of points would be in rings and parallel bars, and we had to be good to beat Japan,” Lan said. “Actually, it was decided in the horizontal bar. But everyone did well, not just me.”
