Chinese gymnasts live up to top billing
Chinese gymnasts dominated the early session of qualifying at the 36th world gymnastics championships on Thursday, leading three of the six men's apparatus disciplines.
Teng Haibin secured the highest mark of the day with his fast and exciting scissor routine on the pommel horse.
Cheered on by a large Chinese contingent, Teng moved effortlessly from end-to-end and nailed his dismount to earn 9.762.
A controlled exhibition of powerful tumbling and uptempo exercise paid dividends for Liang Fuliang, who led the early group of floor qualifiers with 9.637.
Olympic champion Yang Wei leads the vault with 9.562. With most of the competitors failing to make a clean landing, Yang clinched the top spot with the penultimate jump of the session.
In the strong man's event, Jeffrey Johnson demonstrated his muscular power by setting the pace in the rings competition with 9.575.
With muscles bulging from his slight frame, the 27-year-old American completed the obligatory crucifix without wavering.
"I'm looking forward to doing very well," said Johnson, who is leading a revival of U.S. gymnastics after the disastrous campaign in Sydney two years ago.
HOME CHALLENGE
But Johnson will be lucky if he manages to hold on to the lead as Sydney Games champion Szilveszter Csollany, set to compete in the second session, has set his sights on winning his specialist event in front of his home fans.
"I can't complain with my performance. I can do better but I did my job so I'm happy about that," Johnson added.
Japanese duo Yasuhiro Ogawa and Isao Yoneda grabbed the lead on the parallel bars and horizontal bar respectively, but both are expected to slip down the order when Olympic gold medal winners Li Xiaopeng and Russia's Alexi Nemov start their title challenge later in the day.
One of the favourites for the parallel bars title, Huang Xu, picked up a few deductions when he was forced to make adjustments to his grip and finished behind Ogawa with 9.325.
Commonwealth champion Kyle Shewfelt of Canada, who is building a massive reputation in the sport, suffered the most bizarre fall of the afternoon when he suddenly lost grip on the horizontal bar.
Although he hung on for dear life with one hand for a few seconds, he was unable to stop himself from crashing into the mat. A score of 8.400 eliminated him from the event.
