Asian Games: Japan take men's team gymnastics gold

INCHEON, South Korea - An under-strength Japan uspet favourites China to claim the Asian Games men's team gymnastics gold Sunday, with Beijing's golden boy Zou Kai outdone in the floor routine by an unfancied outsider.

The Chinese, who have been utterly dominant in Asian Games gymnastics, with 123 golds out of a possible 175 since the event was introduced in 1974, were beaten into third place by South Korea, let down by a patchy performance across the six disciplines.

The hosts had been targeting gold in the team event, hoping Olympic champion Yang Hakseon would vault them to victory.

But a hamstring injury suffered this week meant the 21-year-old was unable to perform his gravity-defying triple aerial twist "Yang 1" dismount.

Forced to perform an easier vault, he came up just short of North Korea's Ri Se-Gwang despite comfortably outscoring his rival in the execution marks.

Japan, silver medallists behind China at the 2012 Olympics but without a single member of that team present, were impressive in their consistency and showed real flair on the pommel and high bar.

The biggest surprise came on the floor as five-time Olympic gold medallist Zou was outdone by 23-year-old Shotaro Shirai, competing in his first major international games.

To add to the ignominy for China's most decorated Olympian, Shirai is not even the best floor gymnast in his family.

Shirai's brother Kohei, is the world champion and has skipped Incheon to defend his title in Nanning, China from October 3, along with Japan's four-time world title holder Kohei Uchimura.

Zou, who performed earlier in the day, could only look on and watch as Shirai outdid him with a routine that was less technically challenging but executed more cleanly.