Gymnasts Qualify for Finals

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, August 19, 2003

Gymnasts Qualify for Finals

Olympic champions China advanced smoothly to the men's team finals with a third-place finish with 225.119 in the preliminaries at the 2003 Gymnastics World Championships on Sunday.

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Olympic champions China advanced smoothly to the men's team finals with a third-place finish with 225.119 in the preliminaries at the 2003 Gymnastics World Championships on Sunday.

The ambitious hosts the United States clinched the top place with 227.743 points and Japan followed with 227.046.

The Sydney Olympic bronze medallists Russia saved their berth in the finals at the sixth position after their poor performance at the past two championships where they went home empty-handed.

The 2001 world team bronze medallists Ukraine edged into the finals at eighth position. Romania, South Korea and France finished fourth, fifth and seventh respectively.

But Belarus, the surprising winner at the last world championships, was knocked out of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games with a poor 13th finish.

Only the top 12 teams can qualify for the Olympic team's competition and the other four tickets went to Canada, Spain, Italy and Germany.

Olympic and world champion Li Xiaopeng gave a stable and successful performance on the five events he participated in, especially on his strongholds vault and parallel bars. He scored the highest points on both apparatus with 9.781 and 9.725. He also qualified for the high bars at the eighth position.

Sydney Olympics all-around runner-up Yang Wei finished only 10th in the all-around qualifications with some serious mistakes on floor exercise and high bar, scoring poor 8.587 and 8.975. He contributed the most points to the team's third place with 55.987 points.

Though with a shaky start on the floor, Xiao Qin, the two-time world pommel horse runner-up, showed his confidence and determination on the last rotation scoring the highest 9.812 on the apparatus.

The third position was acceptable for the five-time world champions and the head coach Huang Yubin said: "It's just preliminaries, and the real test is the finals."

"We weren't worried about the falls today because we're more concerned about the team finals later on.

"Because of the injuries, we weren't trying very hard. We are saving it for the finals. Today the aim was just to get into the finals."

But the head coach was not happy about the performance by Yang Wei. "Maybe he is too nervous," he said.

Frenzied crowd

Inspired by the frenzy of the home crowds, the US team kept a good momentum since the first rotation on floor exercise. Everyone looked determined and only made a few errors in the routines except Blaine Wilson.

The two-time Olympian had a rough start on the floor exercise and pommel horse. He stumbled on the floor and slip from the horse during the routine, but recovered soon to score 9.675 on rings.

"At first I was too nervous and overcompensated by being too aggressive. It hurt me in my first few events," said Wilson.

Their sticking landing was most impressive. "I was surprising at the landings and a lot of the guys were sticking. They were really going for it," said Paul Hamm, who contributed the most to the team's top place with 56.848 and finished second in the all-around qualifications.

The 2001 world team runner-ups climbed to the top place after four rotations.

"There is nothing like competing in the US. You hear people rooting for other countries as well as your own. It's a lot of fun. There's a lot of energy out there," said Morgan Hamm.

But the road to the top of the podium became rocky for the revived and ambious US women's team. After losing the current balance beam world champion Ashley Postell, the team lost another key athlete on the eve of the women's team qualifications.

A serious knee injury knocked vault specialist Annia Hatch out of the championships during a practice session.

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