Women's silver medalists China sat on third after their team qualifying session of the world gymnastics championships, ahead of the most favored United States, launching their request once again for the title later on Saturday.
China claimed a team total of 225.127 points with uncharacteristic mistakes on uneven bars and balance beam, trailing leaders Russia on a deficit of 6.310. Hosts Britain are the second on 227.162, followed by China, Italy, Japan and Canada.
The top eight teams from qualifications will earn berths to the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro and advance to the final, where the scores will be reset.
Fan Yilin came out the only Chinese who had stood out, posting a team high 14.966 routine on bars, while three of her teammates slipped off at some point during their respective routines. And three of the four Chinese competitors suffered errors on beam to score 13.833 or worse.
"We have improvements to make as a team," said Shang Chunking, who came out the best Chinese in qualifications so far, ranking the seventh in individual standings of women's all-around with three subdivisions to go.
"We will try our very best in every step," Shang said.
Wang Yan, who earned China's top scores on beam and vault, kept having faith in the whole team and said: "If we can calm our nerves for the (team) final, I think we can improve."
"We are not satisfied with our performance this morning, but if we should perform at our normal level, we can still get a medal," added Chen Siyi.
In the same subdivision, reigning world vault champion Hong Un Jong of DPR Korea earned the highest score on the discipline thus far in qualifications, though her team is far from qualifying for the final on Tuesday.
