(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-09-05 10:22

China will have no representative in the high bar final or the vault which was led by world silver medallist Dimitri Kaspiarovich of Belarus ahead of Japan's Makoto Okiguchi.

Japanese newcomer Okiguchi warned that his team has what it takes to challenge China for the title after settling for third last year.

"Today was a really good day. If we have one like today I think we can beat China," said the 22-year-old from Kanagawa.

"Tomita and Mitzutori were leading the team in a really good way and that helped the rest of us.

"Three days ago the training was not so good. We had a lot of misses and it wasn't that good so we were a little frustrated and unsure."

The Chinese had powered ahead on their two rotations - the vault and parallel bars - with Yang leading the later.

But both Yang and the team struggled on the high bar, in which the Japanese excelled, with Liang Fuliang tumbling after losing his grip.

The Chinese also had problems on the floor with an error by Yang with Xiao Qin going out of bounds.

But they clawed back lost ground on the pommel and pulled ahead on the rings.

Huang said there was work to do ahead of Thursday's team final, and the all-around the following day.

"We did a very poor job on the horizontal bar. It is a weak point for us, so it makes us weaker. It's the problem we need to solve in our preparation for the Beijing Olympic Games," he added.

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