体坛英语新闻：American gymnasts set pace but Wieber out of all-round

LONDON, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Team USA showcased splendid women's gymnastics to lead the qualifying Sunday, but world all-round champion Jordyn Wieber was ruled out her favorite individual final.

The United States demonstrated all their 17 routines without costly errors including twice vaults from McKayla Maroney for the apparatus final.

The surprise came from the all-round finalists, which forced the reigning world champion Wieber the spot for two of her teammates presented more remarkable results out of the four appratus.

USA led the team's ranking with 181.863 points followed by Russia's 180.429 points and China's far behind 176.637 points.

The Americans' strong start came from three all-round prone gymnasts of 60-plus points as Alexandra Raisman scored 60.391 thanks to outstanding floor routine, which earned her 15.325 points and help her overtook Wieber, who had 14.666 in the US last apparatus.

America's Gabrielle Douglas also gave a comprehensive work, collecting 60.265 points against Wieber's 60.032.

The defending champions China suffered from a couple of mistakes from Yao Jinnan, the world all-round bronze medallist, who is bothered with injury and a lack of recent training.

China, featuring He Kexin and Deng Linlin, two of the team gold medallists from the Beijing Games, put in less-than-stellar performances.

He finished behind Britain's 27-year-old Beth Tweddle, twice world champion, on the uneven bars, for which she won gold in Beijing, and the team failed to get a gymnast into the top eight of the vault and floor.

Stylish and strong routines from Victoria Komova, Aliya Mustafina, Anastasia Grishina and 2008 Games veteran Ksenia Afanaseva earned Russia the second place and a potential challenge of USA. Former Olympic champions Romania came in fourth, slightly behind China.

China's Deng said she feel not as strong as she was in China physically but declined to reveal the cause, just saying maybe out of personal reasons.

China's Huang Qiushuang believed China can have better execution in the team's final, but denied routines change.

The 16-year-old Douglas, who beat Wieber in the US trials, had a big overstep on the floor herself, incurring a 0.3-point penalty, but did well enough on the other apparatus for the mistake not to matter.

Wieber was upset with the miss of all-round final. "It's a bit of disappointment. I have always been a dream of mine to compete in the all-

round final of the Olympics but I'm proud of Aly and Gabby and happy that they reached the all-round and that I was able to help the team get to the finals," said Wieber, who burst into tears after learning the loss of all-round place.

Komova, who lost out to Wieber for the world all-round title by 0.033 points last October, led the individual standings after high scores on the beam and uneven bars, just ahead of Raisman with Douglas third.

Uzbek-born Oksana Chusovitina, 37, who now competes for Germany, made a record sixth appearance in the Olympics and was happy to qualify for the final of the vault, on which she won a silver medal in Beijing.

The top eight teams, the best eight on each apparatus and the leading 24 individuals in the standings at the end of the qualifying competition on Sunday get to compete for medals.