(AFP) – Aug 9, 2008

BEIJING (AFP) — China's all-conquering men's gymnastics team powered to top spot in Olympic qualification before an ecstatic hometown crowd Saturday, underscoring their status as red-hot favourites for gold.

Every routine from a Chinese team featuring three world champions was met with cheers and applause in the 18,000-seater National Indoor Stadium as the hosts crushed the opposition in the qualifying rounds.

In a dominant performance that would snare China five gold if it was repeated in the finals, China's qualified first in the team event, pommel horse, rings, parallel bars and the individual all-around event.

Asian teams featured heavily in the team competition as China qualified first on 374.675 points, Japan second on 369.55, Russia third on 366.225 and South Korea fourth on 365.675.

They were also prominent in the individual all-around, where the top five qualifiers were China's defending world champion Yang Wei, Fabian Hambuechen of Germany, Korea's Kim Daeeun and the Japanese pair Kohei Uchimura and Koki Uchimura.

But it was all about the hometown heroes for the crowd, which erupted into chants of "Yang Wei, Yang Wei" when he took to the floor for the first time.

The jubilant Chinese gymnasts high-fived each other between routines, with pommel horse world champion Xiao Qin scoring 16.000 on his favoured apparatus and rings world champion Chen Yibing 16.525 in his.

"The atmosphere was really good everybody telling you 'go, go, go', I've never had that feeling before," Chen said through an interpreter.

The performance leaves the Chinese men on track to make amends for a disappointing display in Athens, where they failed to defend their Olympic team title and finished fifth.

The crowd also treated arch-rivals and defending Olympic champions Japan with respect, clapping Kohei Uchimura's efforts on the high bar as attention briefly shifted from the home team during a gap in the Chinese routines.

Canadian Kyle Shewfelt, the defending Olympic floor exercise champion, scored a relatively modest 15.525 but it was still a remarkable Games comeback after he broke both his legs last year training for the world championships.

"I came here to achieve a personal victory and for my team and I did that," the 26-year-old said, adding "the best is yet to come" when he defends his title in the finals.

An injury-weakened US team qualified sixth, meaning it makes the final eight that go through to the team event but needs to improve to be in medal contention.

The team, already missing reigning all-around champion Paul Hamm, was rocked when his brother Morgan also pulled out injured last Thursday.

"Our goal was to hit our routines and I think we achieved that, I'm very, very pleased with this incredible group of young men," US head coach Kevin Mazeika said.

Spain's defending Olympic champion on the floor exercise Gervasio Deferr scored 15.825 in his specialist discipline and Italy's Olympic high bar champion Igor Cassina posted 16.000 on his apparatus.

Polish world champion Polish Leszek Blanik scored 16.700 on the vault and his equivalent on the exercise floor, Brazil's Diego Hypolito, tumbled and leapt to 15.950.

Scores are no longer marked out of 10. Instead, gymnasts receive two scores -- one an open-ended mark measuring the difficulty of the routine, the other a mark out of 10 for how well it was executed.

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