Chinese gymnasts suffered another blow at the Paris Olympics in the early hours of Thursday, after Japan's Oka Shinnosuke secured gold following a neck-and-neck battle in the men's individual all-round discipline.

Oka and the Chinese pair of Xiao Ruoteng and Zhang Boheng were leading the pack after completing five of the six routines, with less than 0.37 points separating the trio.

Zhang went last on the last routine - the horizontal bar - and needed 14.9 points to seal victory.

But minor flaws in his performance meant he ended up 0.2 points short, handing victory to Oka who reigned supreme with a final score of 86.832. Xiao rounded up the podium.

Japan have now won the event four consecutive times, but their defence did not come easy.

Zhang stumbled out of the gate in the floor exercise, with his score of 13.233 points being one of the worst.

But he recovered since, even rising to medal contention with a strong 15.3 points on the parallel bars in the fifth round.

Zhang and Xiao were part of the Chinese group who coughed up the gold medal in the team event on Monday. Their teammate Su Weide fell twice from the bar in the final routine, enabling a dramatic comeback by Japan to snatch gold from China's hands.