At Aarhus in Denmark yesterday the Chinese gymnasts dominated the men's qualifiers to take top spot ahead of Japan while the Athens Olympic silver medallists the US dropped out of the finals and had to settle for 11th spot.?

When the agonizing qualification round was over the US men's team put their arms around each other and came together in a close-knit huddle to share a few words.

"We gave everything we had out there today," American rings specialist Kevin Tan said Saturday after the qualifying round at a world championships his team would like to forget. "We're not happy it happened this way. But we keep fighting."

The second sub-division highlighted the qualifiers featuring the two powerhouses of China and Japan. China earned 370.450 points to lead Japan on 367.75 at the top of the team ranking. Pundits had expected these two to be too powerful for the others after witnessing them in podium training. Russia on 365.4 came next. The US with 358.1 was squeezed out of the top eight and can only watch the finals tomorrow.

"But we're far from finished," team coordinator Ron Brant said. "We're all preparing for the 2008 Beijing Olympics."

Chinese gymnasts and coaches all had broad smiles on their faces and waved to the cheering crowd when they left the competition arena with all their targets pocketed from the qualifiers.

The head of the Chinese delegation watched the qualifying round from a spectator's seat and sent out the news of the first-stage victory through text messages from his mobile phone.

(Xinhua News Agency October 16, 2006)