China overcome spills to take lead

BEIJING // A crash landing off the asymmetric bars by He Kexin failed to stop China from upstaging an injury-hit United States team in the women's qualifying. The two gymnastics superpowers headed for a golden showdown in Wednesday's team final but both had to overcome setbacks on the opening day of the women's competition. He, one of the favourites for the asymmetric bars title, drew gasps from the crowd as she executed four stunning release-and-catch combinations in a high-flying routine.

But she slipped off while attempting to glide from the higher to the lower bar in what is usually a simple manoeuvre. After remounting the apparatus and completing her dismount, He, 16, burst into tears and had to be consoled by her coach. Despite the spill, she still scored a respectable 15.725. Such is the depth of talent in the Chinese team, they were able to make light of the mishap and set the benchmark with a combined total of 248.275 points. World champions the USA earned 246.800, while Romania's hold on the Olympic title looked shaky as they trailed with 238.425.

The day began badly for the Americans when Samantha Peszek injured her ankle in the warm-up. They had only four healthy gymnasts in their line-up and knew there was little room for error as every score would count. The pressure seemed to affect Bridget Sloan and Alicia Sacramone, who both incurred penalties for stepping out of the area on the floor exercise. Nastia Liukin and Memmel added to the day's drama when they both came to grief on the asymmetric bars. Memmel lost her rhythm while rotating around the bar and fell off mid-routine.

Liukin drew "oohs" for her jaw-dropping display but took the shine off it when she mistimed her dismount and landed awkwardly before rolling backwards on to her bottom. Like China's He, she was rewarded for her daring content and stayed on course for the apparatus final with 15.950. "Wow, what a day," said the US team co-ordinator Martha Karolyi. "On bars I cannot imagine what happened. I was totally surprised. Some sort of nerves may have been playing."

World all-round champion Shawn Johnson kept her wits about her to top the standings for the individual crown with 62.725. Liukin was second with 62.375 and China's Yang Yilin stood third. Cheng Fei lived up to her billing as one of the favourites for the vault and floor titles. The three-times world vault champion produced two soaring somersaults to top the field with an average of 15.912. Her floor routine was equally explosive and the giant screens in the National Indoor Stadium proclaimed gasps from the crowd as soon as she had nailed her final tumble and scored 15.750.

While China's 1.3 billion inhabitants expect Cheng and company to give them their first Olympic women's team title in gymnastics, she was more concerned about Wednesday's early start. "I'm tense about it. I'll be lying awake worrying about it all night, I'll be very tired by the morning," Cheng said. Traditionally gymnastics medals are contested in the evening but American host broadcaster NBC wanted morning finals to show on prime-time TV in the United States.

*Reuters