Gymnastics-China's new and old set early pace at worlds

STUTTGART, Germany, Sept 1 (Reuters) Holders China displayed a spectacular array of skills to set the early pace in women's team qualifying at the world gymnastics championships today.

Four members of the Chinese team were appearing at their first major competition but their lack of experience did not show and their points total of 241.175 was higher than they managed at last year's event when they qualified in second place.

Romania showed some of their old sparkle to finish 1.300 behind in second thanks to breath-taking balance beam performances from triple Olympic gold medallist Catalina Ponor and Steliana Nistor, who leads the individual standings.

With many of the top contenders, including the United States and Russia, performing tomorrow, Italy are third in the early standings. Ukraine are fourth and hosts Germany fifth.

The top eight teams qualify for the team final and the top 12 nations earn places at next year's Olympics.

Keen to impress the judges before hosting the Games in Beijing, China started on the asymmetric bars.

Newcomer Yang Yilin, who turned 15 less than a week ago, produced a series of slick moves and daring catches to notch the day's best score of 16.000 on that apparatus.

Fellow first-timer Li Shanshan jumped and turned confidently on the balance beam to impress the judges for 16.325, helping to ensure Chinese gymnasts held the top score on every apparatus.

Last year's floor and vault champion Cheng Fei used the same power and agility that earned her the titles to score a 15.950 on the vault and 15.375 on the floor.

Despite the strength in depth of the China squad, it was Romanian Nistor who found herself at the top of the individual standings, a comfortable 1.050 ahead of holder Vanessa Ferrari of Italy in second.

Nistor's poise and gravity-defying balance on the beam was surpassed by the graceful Ponor, who came out of retirement to help Romania after they failed to win a team medal last year for the first time in 25 years.

In a championships where the average age of female competitors is 17, Germany's Oksana Chusovitina continued to buck the trend at age of 32.

The Uzbek-born mother, who won a team gold at the 1992 Olympics representing the CIS, produced the day's second best vault of 15.700 and stands a good chance of making the apparatus final to compete for the title she won in 2003.

REUTERS PY RAI2306