Asian Games: China's gymnasts lead the way on Asian Games first day

Haibin Teng of China performs on the rings as they win the men's gymnastics team gold.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Hosts China lead the way after the opening day of the 16th Asian Games
Olympic and world champions claim men's gymnastics team title
China claim four of six golds in the first day of action in the swimming pool
Hong Kong's Lee Wai Sze sets Asian record in the women's 500m cycling

(CNN) -- China lead the medals table after the first day of the Asian Games with their all-conquering men's gymnastics team making no mistake to retain their title.

The reigning Olympic and world champions finished well clear of Japan and South Korea to claim the gold in Guangzhou.

They totaled 368.50 points to Japan's 357.500 and South Korea on 352.95.

It was China's 10th consecutive Asian Games team gold and with three world apparatus champions in Chen Yibing, Feng Zhe and Zhang Chenglong they were always in command.

The victory comes hard on the heels of success at the recent world championships in Rotterdam and head coach Chen Xiong was delighted with his team.

"We came here immediately after the world championships. We were tired but we still came here and we performed well," he told AFP.

Team work and team spirit helped them to overcome their fatigue
--Chen Xiong

"Team work and team spirit helped them to overcome their fatigue. Japan are major opposition and they performed well in the morning, but we did better."

Chen said his team were in the build-up phase for their major target with is the Olympics in London in 2012.

The women's team final is on Sunday.

It was gold all the way for the hosts as the 45-nation Asiad got underway with Yuan Xiaochao winning the first in men's Changquan Wushu.

Chinese cyclists also dominated and Lee Wai Sze from the Hong Kong-China team showed her potential with an Asian record of 33.945 seconds in the 500m time trial.

She beat Beijing Olympic bronze medalist Guo Shuang into second place by 0.2 seconds.

In the swimming pool, China won four of the six golds on offer on the first night of final's action.

China won gold in the women's 200m freestyle, women's 100m butterfly and women's 50m breaststroke in the individual events.

They rounded off with a thrilling victory over Japan, who took the other two golds, in the women's 4x100m medley relay at the Aoti Aquatics Center.