4 nations compete for women's team gymnastics winner

LONDON - China, USA, Russia and Romania are all capable to win the women's team gymnastics gold medal at the London Games with stability and consistency playing the key role, said Chinese coach Wang Qunce on Tuesday.

Wang refused to tip team USA as the favorite winner for the women's team event though the USA came in London as the reigning world champions.

"Now we're competing in the system of five-three-three in the final, all three gymnasts need to perform stability and consistency," said Wang after guiding Chinese team's training at the North Greenwich Arena.

"I do not see any favorite for the team event and to me China, USA, Russia and Romania are all in the race for the trophy. The outcome relies on the success rate of all the four apparatuses and mistakes can cost any team the chance to be on the top podium."

Looking back to the Tokyo world championships where Chinese team finished in the third place after the USA and Russia, Wang took it as a single and isolated case, which can not cast the paramount scenario at all, especially in the top arena like Olympics.

"We committed three costly mistakes at the Tokyo worlds and finally we were in third place, but you can't replant that to the Olympics. A single gymnast cost us at least five points in Tokyo and a single gymnast can cost you the victory here either," said Wang.

"You see a big gap in the final scores between China and USA, but if you put the three mistakes into consideration, the gap will be cut through.

"It can happen to any team. It happens to your team, you'll miss the top place and that's the case in the team event. So I am holding confidence for Chinese team to compete with teams like USA, Russia and Romania here, and each team will have their chance."

Chinese gymnast Tan Sixin had blunders both in the floor and uneven bars and her teammate Huang Qiushuang fell off the uneven bars at the Tokyo world championships.

"Team USA is leading the vault in general, but they're not strong in beam and uneven bars. That's our edge to beat them if we can avoid errors during the final," added Wang.

"If Russia and Romania do well in cutting mistakes, they can beat China and USA. You can never predict what will happen in the final and it's the gymnasts that decide the result. Anyway, we don't overestimate any team and we don't underestimate any team until we see the final result."

Team USA, spearheaded by the all-around world champion Jordyn Wieber, won the women's team title at last year's world championships in 179.411 points with Russia in second place, totalling 175.329 points and China in third, scoring 172.820.