China took an overall lead and the United States finished second at the Olympic women's qualification on Sunday, kicking off the anticipated two-way battle between the two powerhouses.
Coming out in the first subdivision in the morning, the hosts overcame a crash fall off the uneven bars by He Kexin and stood the challenge from the United States, who competed later in the afternoon session.
They collected a total of 248.275 points to stay atop, outperforming the injury-hit United States by 1.475 while Russian were third in 244.400 with an average performance on each apparatus.
Chinese started with a solid performance although an unlucky draw put them first on the risky balance beam.
Cheng Fei contributed to the hosts in particular, giving the best in her two favorite exercises floor and vault.
Everything went fine for the Chinese until He, one of the favorites for the uneven bars title, lost her grip to the low bar after a fly from the high.
She remounted the bar to finish her routine, but burst into tears as soon as dismounting. Fortunately enough, she still managed 15.725 points to stay within the top eight for a final place, thanks to an amazing difficulty of 7.5 and some dazzling fly elements.
Jiang Yuyuan became the other upset of the Chinese team, sitting on the mat after her vault, but her execution of the other three exercises were more than enough to lift her into the all-around final.
Already hit by Chellsie Memmel's injury, the Americans were further more handicapped as Samantha Peszek sprained her left ankle in the warm-up right before the qualification.
The injured duo each competed on one event - uneven bars, and the U.S. could put up only four gymnasts on the other three apparatus, leaving no room for error.
However, it was exactly the mistakes on the uneven bars that cost the Americans' most of the points.
Memmel, who had to give up all-around due to her ankle's injury before the Games, crashed off the bar mid-routine and Nastia Liukin immediately added to the drama by an awkward dismount, rolling backwards to her bottom.
Memmel said of the fall after the qualification:"It was a surprise. I have not missed it in workout at all. I am not hurt due to the fall. It was just a mistake I need to fix and I will have to train harder."
Liukin, making mistakes on the same apparatus, also vowed that they will came back as a stronger team in the finals although injuries left the team short-handed.
"It was my dismount, so I have training tomorrow and I can fix it. I'm just concentrating on the finals.