Chinese Men, Joura Lead Qualification in Beijing

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Australia's Dasha Joura led the individual all-around and the Chinese men's team topped the field during qualifications at the "Good Luck Beijing" International Invitational, which began Wednesday at Beijing's National Indoor Stadium.

Joura performed four solid routines to place first in qualifications for Thursday's all-around final, over Bridget Sloan of the U.S. Third in qualifying was China's Jiang Yuyuan, followed by 2005 world all-around champion Chellsie Memmel of the U.S.

Joura began on balance beam, where she earned her top score of the day. Her routine featured a flip-flop, layout; aerial, side aerial; and a round-off, double tuck dismount that merited a reaction of "Whoo!" from national team coach Peggy Liddick when she landed.

Joura's floor routine included a full-in; 2-1/2 twist, punch barani; and double pike. She vaulted a double-twisting Yurchenko, and finished on uneven bars, where her routine included a giant-full to Gienger and a double front-half dismount.

Joura said she was pleased with her performance, although she is not here necessarily to win.

"For this test event, the focus was to come and see how the arena feels, and how it will feel to be up on the podium at the Olympic Games," she told IG. "We don't have any focus on medals or results. We just want to see what it will be like next year."

Sloan, the alternate on the U.S. women's team that won the 2007 world team title, also performed consistently. She began on floor exercise, where she tumbled a piked full-in; triple twist; double twisting front, punch layout front; and a double pike.

Sloan vaulted a 1-1/2 twisting Yurchenko, and her routine on uneven bars featured a Stalder-full, Tkatchev; toe on, Tkatchev; and double layout dismount.

Jiang qualified third, in spite of two falls from balance beam. She missed a punch front and a full turn with one leg up, and later had to grab the beam after a side somi. Jiang vaulted a double-twisting Yurchenko.

Memmel was the first competitor of the day, performing to "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" on floor exercise. She mounted with two whips through to an Arabian double front (out of bounds), and finished with a solid double pike.

Memmel's vault was a full-twisting Yurchenko, and on uneven bars she did a Hindorff, Pak salto; giant-full, Tkatchev; and jam, dislocate to double front.

Chinese team star Cheng Fei competed on every event except for uneven bars, and qualified for the this weekend's apparatus finals on vault and floor exercise. She fell from the beam after a punch front, but still grabbed the last spot to the final.

Pang Panpan and Zhou Zhuoru, China's other two competitors, ended the qualifications in fifth and eighth place all-around, respectively. They are ineligible for Thursday's all-around final, however, since Jiang and Cheng are the two gymnasts officially representing China in this competition. Both would have also qualified to the balance beam final.

Heading into Thursday's all-around final, Joura said she is cautious about focusing on next summer's Beijing Olympic Games just yet.

"You don't really think about what's to happen then," she said. "You just have to do the preparation and get there first. Hopefully we'll perform well, and we'll see what that takes us then."

Although no members of its gold medal-winning 2007 World Championships team are competing here, the Chinese men led the qualification by just over two points ahead of Japan. The Chinese "B" team scored the highest team totals on pommel horse, still rings, vault and parallel bars, and posted the fifth-best score on floor exercise and the third-best on high bar.

Japan, just .2 ahead of Korea, earned the highest team totals on floor exercise and high bar. Fourth was Germany, the reigning world team bronze medalist.

German standout Fabian Hambüchen was the top all-arounder in the qualifications. (No men's all-around or women's team competition is taking place.) Hambüchen also led the qualifications to the floor exercise and high bar finals.

The U.S. men earned the eighth and final spot for Thursday's team final, in spite of some problems throughout the qualifications. Three gymnasts fell off pommel horse, and two gymnasts fell on floor exercise.

"I was definitely hoping to do a better job than I did tonight, but it was more about getting used to the arena," U.S. champion David Durante told IG. "We wanted to put in a good performance to show that the U.S. is still strong, but this result really doesn't mean too much to us. It's more about getting used to things and getting ready for next summer."

Last-place Canada, which put up only four gymnasts on each event, was forced to count low scores from an injured A.J. Rayment, who scored 2.550 on still rings in the first rotation, scratched high bar and scored 2.025 on pommel horse in the sixth rotation.

Download the full women's results by clicking here.

Men's Subdivision 2 team scores
Men's Subdivision 1 team scores

For more results, schedule, photos and more, visit the official event Web site http://www.gymnastics2007.org.cn

2007 "Good Luck Beijing" International Invitational
Nov. 28, Beijing

Women's All-Around Qualification
1. Dasha Joura AUS 60.000
2. Bridget Sloan USA 59.525
3. Jiang Yuyuan CHN 59.125
4. Chellsie Memmel USA 58.675
5. Pang Panpan CHN 58.400*
6. Lauren Mitchell AUS 57.600
7. Kristina Vaculik CAN 57.000
8. Zhou Zhuoru CHN 56.800*
9. Svetlana Klyukina RUS 56.800
10. Marie-Sophie Hindermann GER 56.725
11. Keiki Mukumoto JPN 56.400
12. Verona van de Leur NED 56.175
13. Lia Parolari ITA 56.075
14. Anastasia Koval UKR 55.900
15. Miki Uemura JPN 55.175
16. Andreea Grigore ROM 54.975
17. Laetitia Dugain FRA 54.975
18. Anja Brinker GER 54.850
19. Federica Macri ITA 54.750
20. Marissa King GBR 54.125
21. Jana Sikulova CZE 53.875
22. Hong Su Jong PRK 53.500
23. Anastasia Marachkovskaya BLR 51.925
24. Cheng Fei CHN 45.250
25. Daria Zgoba UKR 30.525
26. Ariella K&aauml;slin SUI 28.475
27. Alina Stanculescu ROM 28.275
28. Stefani Bisbikou GRE 15.050

* Exhibition competitor from host nation

Men's Team Qualification
1. China 363.625
2. Japan 361.550
3. Korea 361.350
4. Germany 357.500
5. Russia 356.425
6. Romania 355.875
7. France 351.450
8. USA 349.125
9. Belarus 348.000
10. Spain 344.575
11. Canada 304.050

Women's Vault Finalists
1. Cheng Fei CHN 15.150
2. Hong Su Jong PRK 14.412
3. Marissa King GBR 14.175
4. Anastasia Marachkovskaya BLR 14.125
5. Ariella Käslin SUI 14.125
6. Kristina Vaculik CAN 13.675
7. Jana Sikulova CZE 13.325

Uneven Bars Finalists
1. Daria Zgoba UKR 15.800
2. Jiang Yuyuan CHN 15.725
3. Anja Brinker GER 15.300
4. Anastasia Koval UKR 15.200
5. Pang Panpan CHN 15.175
6. Kristina Vaculik CAN 15.125
7. Dasha Joura AUS 15.050
8. Bridget Sloan USA 14.925
R1 Chellsie Memmel USA 14.750
R2 Lauren Mitchell AUS 14.750
R3 Jana Sikulova CZE 14.300

Balance Beam Finalists
1. Chellsie Memmel USA 15.525
2. Keiki Mukumoto JPN 15.500
3. Bridget Sloan USA 15.300
4. Dasha Joura AUS 15.250
5. Lauren Mitchell AUS 15.175
6. Stefani Bisbikou GRE 15.050
7. Kristina Vaculik CAN 15.025
8. Cheng Fei CHN 14.950
R1 Hong Su Jong PRK 14.775
R2. Daria Zgoba UKR 14.725
R3. Svetlana Klyukina RUS 14.700

Women's Floor Exercise Finalists
1. Cheng Fei CHN 15.000
2. Jiang Yuyuan CHN 14.750
3. Dasha Joura AUS 14.650
4. Bridget Sloan USA 14.625
5. Chellsie Memmel USA 14.400
6. Lia Parolari ITA 14.250
7. Svetlana Klyukina RUS 14.050
8. Federica Macri ITA 14.050
R1 Andreea Grigore ROM 14.025
R2 Lauren Mitchell AUS 13.925
R3 Anja Brinker GER 13.700

Men's Floor Exercise
1. Fabian Hambüchen GER 15.825
2. Brandon O'Neill CAN 15.800
3. Makoto Okiguchi JPN 15.775
4. Kohei Uchimura JPN 15.775
5. David Sender USA 15.625
6. Gael da Silva FRA 15.600
7. Razvan Selariu ROM 15.550
8. Dmitry Gogotov RUS 15.525
R1 Dmitry Barkalov RUS 15.500
R2 Yang Tae-Young KOR 15.375
R3 Sean Golden USA 15.350

Pommel Horse
1. Daniel Popescu ROM 15.500
2. Flavius Koczi ROM 15.300
3. Kim Soo Myun KOR 15.175
4. Lu Bin CHN 15.050
5. Lu Bo CHN 14.925
6. Kim Ji Hoon KOR 14.925
7. Yosuku Hoshi JPN 14.875
8. Dmitry Barkalov RUS 14.750
R1 Pierre-Yves Beny FRA 14.725
R2 Hamilton Sabot FRA 14.650
R3 Clay Strother USA 14.650

Still Rings
1. Yan Mingyong CN 16.400
2. Lu Bin CHN 16.250
3. Alexander Balandin RUS 16.025
4. Danny Rodrigues FRA 16.025
5. Dmitry Savitsky BLR 15.425
7. Yang Tae-Young KOR 15.400
9. Kim Dae Eun KOR 15.350
10. Razvan Selariu 15.300
R1. Robert Stanescu ROM 15.175
R2 Grant Golding CAN 15.150
R3 Christian Bazan ESP 15.100

Men's Vault
1. Lu Bin CHN 16.462
2. Liang Mingsheng CHN 16.325
3. Flavius Koczi ROM 16.262
4. Dmitry Kasperovich BLR 16.137
5. Razvan Selariu ROM 16.062
6. Vadim Kuvakin UKR 16.012
7. Makoto Okiguchi JPN 15.862
8. David Sender USA 15.837
R1 Sergio Munoz ESP 15.762
R2 Raphael Wignanitz FRA 15.700
R3 Christian Bazan ESP 15.687

Parallel Bars
1. Feng Zhe CHN 16.200
2. Yang Tae-Young KOR 15.800
3. Liang Mingsheng CHN 15.650
4. Fabian Hambüchen GER 15.550
5. Dmitry Kasperovich BLR 15.325
6. Dmitry Gogotov RUS 15.250
7. Dmitry Savitsky BLR 15.250
8. Yosuke Hoshi JPN 15.250
R1 Yang Tae-Seok KOR 15.175
R2 Kohei Uchimura JPN 15.075
R3 Ross Brewer GBR 15.025

High Bar
1. Fabian Hambüchen GER 15.900
2. Kim Ji Hoon KOR 15.250
3. Kazuya Ueda JPN 15.250
4. Yosuke Hoshi JPN 15.150
5. Brian Gladow GER 15.025
6. Kim Soo Myun KOR 14.825
7. Hamilton Sabot FRA 14.725
8. Dmitry Gogotov 14.7000
R1 Alexander Tsarevich 14.650
R2 Anatoly Vasilyev 14.600
R3 Feng Zhe CHN 14.525