THE star-studded USA women’s team showed precisely why they are favourites to retain their title with a dominant qualification performance at the 2015 World Gymnastics Championships in Glasgow.
Led by reigning world all-around champion Simone Biles, the six-strong team included Gabby Douglas and Aly Raisman, both part of the "Fierce Five" that took gold at London 2012, alongside Brenna Dowell, Maggie Nichols and Madison Kocian.
They proceeded to light up the SSE Hydro with a series of high octane routines that far out-stripped their nearest rivals.
Pretty much every superlative has already been exhausted in attempting to describe the inimitable style of Biles. Put simply, she was sublime.
No sooner had everyone picked their jaws back up again after a stellar opener on floor, than she was launching herself down the vault runway to perform a textbook Amanar – one of the most difficult skills on this apparatus – and claim the highest score of the competition so far: 16.000.
The USA juggernaut rolled on to asymmetric bars. It was here that the wheels came off ever so slightly. Mirroring the woes of the Great Britain women on Friday, Raisman and Dowell both had falls.
For lesser nations this would have been catastrophic, yet for the formidable USA women it barely made a dent in their colossal lead.
Only beam remained. Never an apparatus to tackle when the nerves are jangling, they made light work of it with only Douglas coming to grief as Kocian, Nichols, Raisman and Biles went clean. The final score for Team USA: a massive 236.611.
While she looked unflappable, Biles admitted afterwards it was “pretty stressful” but said she was pleased overall with how things panned out. Ever the perfectionist, however, she added: “I still had a couple of mistakes but we will go into the gym and clean that up.”
Biles and Douglas will progress to the individual all-around final on Thursday evening. With only two gymnasts allowed per country Raisman will be left watching from the sidelines. “It is tough because we all wish we could make it,” said Biles.
The 18-year-old from Texas also topped the qualification standings on vault, beam and floor – giving her three more medal chances.
After Biles, the standout for the most tenacious performance was undoubtedly Dowell. Following a problem with her floor music, she showed her mettle by completing the routine anyway accompanied only by the soundtrack of enthusiastic clapping and cheers from the packed arena.
Earlier in the day, the Chinese women safely navigated qualification but not without some damage to their famed drilled to perfection reputation.
Floor saw Yi Mao step out of bounds on her opening tumble pass, while Jiaxin Tan sat down on one her landings and fell again on asymmetric bars. The latter apparatus also proved the undoing of Yan Wang and Siyi Chen whose intricate skills saw them take the wrong kind of tumble.
China – silver medallists at the 2014 World Gymnastics Championships – posted a score of 225.127.
Great Britain – who scored 227.162 on Friday – also secured a place in the top eight which not only grants them entry to Tuesday’s team final, but that all-important coveted qualification spot for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.
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