LONDON — Their closest rivals were still on the floor competing when the Chinese whipped out five big gold stars and held them up in the shape of their flag.

Why wait?

The Chinese won their second straight Olympic title in men’s gymnastics and third and in four games in a rout Monday, making fools of everyone who wrote them off after a dismal performance in qualifying.

“We don’t have any faults. That’s our secret to beat the Japanese and to beat everyone,” Zhang Chenglong said. “In preliminaries, we had a little bit of faults. But tonight was completely perfect.”

Well, almost.

It took five minutes and a video review to sort out the silver and bronze medalists after Japan questioned the score of three-time world champion Kohei Uchimura on pommel horse, the last routine. Japan jumped from fourth to second after judges revised Uchimura’s score, bumping Britain down to bronze and Ukraine off the medals podium.

It was the British men’s first team medal in a century, and it set off raucous celebrations at the O2 Arena. Even Princes William and Harry joined in.

“To win a medal in your home games, I’ll take that any day,” Kristian Thomas said. “We never actually had the silver in our hands, so there’s no real disappointment.”

Tell that to the Japanese, who were bested by the Chinese yet again. Japan was the runner-up to China in Beijing, as well as at the past four world championships.

And unlike last year’s world championships, where the Japanese had appeared to close the gap on China, this one wasn’t even close. China finished with 275.997 points, more than four points better than Japan.

China now has gone eight years without losing at a major competition.

“At the very beginning it was fourth for Japan so I couldn’t say anything. I couldn’t think anything,” a somber Uchimura said. “I was thinking, ‘It’s fourth, it’s fourth.’ Even after it was changed, I was not too happy.”

The Americans weren’t all that happy, either.

Bronze medalists four years ago, they could practically feel their first gold since 1984 after finishing No. 1 in qualifying, with captain Jon Horton jokingly asking if they could claim their prizes. But everyone gets a do-over in team finals, and whatever momentum the Americans had evaporated when Danell Leyva and John Orozco fell on pommel horse, their second event.

They wound up fifth, six points behind China and almost two behind Britain.

“There’s definitely disappointment,” Horton said. “We are one of the best teams in the world.”

The rest of the Olympic action Monday:

TENNIS

There was a familiar sister act at Wimbledon, with Serena and Venus Williams each advancing in the singles tournament, then combining for a doubles win. Other major champions to advance in singles included Roger Federer, Lleyton Hewitt, top-seeded Victoria Azarenka, Kim Clijsters, Petra Kvitova, Ana Ivanovic and three-time Wimbledon runner-up Andy Roddick.Venus Williams waited an extra day because of rain to begin her bid for a record fourth gold medal in Olympic tennis, then defeated recent French Open runner-up Sara Errani of Italy 6-3, 6-1. Serena completed a July sweep of Poland’s Radwanska sisters by beating Urszula in the second round, 6-2, 6-3. She defeated Radwanska’s sister, Agnieszka, in the Wimbledon final this month. Federer also reached the third round, beating Julien Benneteau of France 6-2, 6-2.

BASKETBALL

Candace Parker and the U.S. women’s team are two for two in London, and this one was a laugher. Parker had 14 points and 12 rebounds to help the United States to a 90-38 rout against Angola. The Americans (2-0) have won their past 35 games in the Olympics and four consecutive gold medals, while Angola is looking for its first victory. France had the most surprising win of the day, edging Australia 74-70 in overtime. Emilie Gomis scored all 22 of her points after halftime.

BOXING

Light heavyweight Damien Hooper rallied from a third-round deficit for a 13-11 victory over Marcus Browne, handing the U.S. team its first loss in London after a 4-0 start. Hooper and Browne put on perhaps the best three minutes of the day after both fighters cautiously fought the first two rounds. The Australian raised his aggression in the third to overwhelm Browne, a Staten Island, N.Y., product. In the afternoon session, Jordan’s first Olympic boxer, Ihab Almatbouli, won his opening bout, while Afghanistan’s first Olympic boxer, flyweight Ajmal Faisal, was eliminated in the evening. Cuban teenager Robeisy Ramirez and Iranian light heavyweight Ehsan Rouzbahani also advanced.

VOLLEYBALL

The U.S. women’s team beat Brazil in an early rematch of the Beijing Games final. Destinee Hooker had 23 points and Jordan Larson added 18 for the top-ranked Americans, who won 25-18, 25-17, 22-25, 25-21 to improve to 2-0 in pool play at Earls Court. The American women have never won an Olympic gold medal in volleyball.

BEACH VOLLEYBALL

Two-time gold medalists Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings earned their 16th consecutive Olympic victory, beating the Czech Republic in straight sets. It was May-Treanor’s 35th birthday when the match started, but because of TV schedules and a long match earlier in the session, it ended shortly after midnight Tuesday. Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal lost to Poland in pool play, the first setback for the American men or women in beach volleyball at the games.

EQUESTRIAN

Zara Phillips, Queen Elizabeth II’s granddaughter, raced through the difficult and dangerous cross-country portion of her first Olympic equestrian eventing competition, finishing clean and well under the pace time.

WATER POLO

This was quite the Olympic debut for Maggie Steffens, who scored seven goals to lead the U.S. women’s team to a 14-13 victory over Hungary. Despite a team full of veterans, it was the 19-year-old Steffens who led the way with sharp shooting from outside for the Americans, who are looking to win their first gold in the event.

DIVING

China is dominating the diving boards — again. Cao Yuan and Zhang Yanquan totaled 486.78 points in the men’s 10-meter synchronized platform, giving the country its second gold medal in the sport at the games. German Sanchez and Ivan Garcia of Mexico had the highest degree of difficulty in the competition and it paid off with the silver. Nick McCrory and David Boudia of the U.S. took the bronze with 463.47.

FENCING

Fencer Yana Shemyakina of Ukraine beat defending champion Britta Heidemann of Germany 9-8 to win the Olympic gold medal in women’s individual epee. The event was overshadowed by an hour-long delay following an appeal by the South Korean team after Heidemann’s 6-5 victory over Shin A-lam in the semifinals.

SAILING

Danish sailor Jonas Hoegh-Christensen is proving to be much more than a one-day wonder in the Finn class in the Olympic regatta. He’s beaten British star Ben Ainslie in each of the first four races and remained in first place overall on Weymouth Bay on the English Channel.

BADMINTON

Top-seeded Lee Chong Wei returned from an injury break to squeak into the last 16 of the Olympic tourney. The Malaysian, who tore right ankle ligaments at the Thomas Cup in late May, beat Ville Lang of Finland 21-8, 14-21, 21-11. Defending champion Lin Dan of China eased through his opener against Scott Evans of Ireland 21-8, 21-14. For the women, world champion Wang Yihan and No. 2-seeded Wang Xin also advanced with ease.

CANOE

Three-time Olympic champions Pavol and Peter Hochschorner finished second in the qualifying heats in the men’s canoe-kayak C2 doubles competition. The Slovakian twin brothers, seeking a fourth consecutive Olympic gold, qualified behind the French pair of Gauthier Klauss and Matthieu Peche. In the women’s K1 singles, Maialen Chourraut topped the qualifying in 98.75.

ROWING

Australia was strong in the men’s four at the rowing regatta, setting one of two Olympic-best times on a sunny final day of heat racing. Britain, which has won this event at the past three games and is also the world champion, won the second heat and United States took the third heat. Earlier, Britain’s Katherine Grainger’s quest for an elusive Olympic gold got off to a perfect start when she broke the Olympic best in the women’s double sculls with partner Anna Watkins in the first heat.

FIELD HOCKEY

Defending Olympic champion Germany got off to a slow start but recovered in time to post a 2-1 victory against Belgium. The Netherlands beat eight-time Olympic champion India 3-2 in the day’s opening men’s match.

HANDBALL

Russia and Brazil in Group A and South Korea in Group B lead the women’s handball competition after two rounds with two wins apiece. Title favorite Russia routed Britain 37-16 in the host’s second drubbing of the tournament after its 31-19 defeat in Saturday’s opener against Montenegro.

JUDO

Kaori Matsumoto of Japan won the gold in the women’s judo 57-kilogram division, and Mansur Isaev of Russia took the top spot in the men’s 73-kilogram category. It was Japan’s first gold in London in the martial art it invented.

SHOOTING

Alin George Moldoveanu of Romania won the 10-meter air rifle gold medal and tied the Olympic qualifying record, making up for narrowly missing a medal in Beijing.

WEIGHTLIFTING

Kim Un Guk won North Korea’s second weightlifting gold medal at the London Games, setting a world record total of 327 kilograms in the men’s 62-kilogram division, and Li Xueying grabbed China’s second weightlifting gold in the women’s 58-kilogram category.

TABLE TENNIS

China’s men and women are on track to sweep the gold medals in Olympic table tennis singles. Defending world champion Zhang Jike and teammate Wang Hao, the silver medalist at the past two Olympics, reached the men’s quarterfinals. For the women, top seeds Ding Ning and Li Xiaoxia are in position for a scrap over the gold medal.

Discipline doled out in soccer

Switzerland stripped a soccer player of his Olympic accreditation on Monday after he sent a threatening and racist message on Twitter about South Koreans. The comments by Michel Morganella came hours after the Swiss lost to South Korea, 2-1, on Sunday.

The 23-year-old player said in the tweet that South Koreans “can go burn” and referred to them as a “bunch of mongoloids.”

Swiss Olympic team chief Gian Gilli said via a translator at a news conference that Morganella “discriminated against, insulted and violated the dignity of the South Korea football team as well as the South Korean people.

Morganella later released a contrite statement through the Swiss Olympic team: “I am sincerely sorry for the people of South Korea, for the players, but equally for the Swiss delegation and Swiss football in general. It’s clear that I’m accepting the consequences.”

Morganella is the second athlete kicked off an Olympic team in London for offensive Twitter comments. Last week, triple jumper Voula Papachristou was kicked off Greece’s Olympic team for her comments on Twitter mocking African immigrants and expressing support for a far-right political party.

A Colombian soccer player was suspended for two games after U.S. forward Abby Wambach said she was “sucker-punched” in the right eye by Lady Andrade during the 3-0 win by the U.S. on Saturday. Wambach called for FIFA to take action, while Andrade called it “an accident.”

— The Associated Press