STUTTGART, Germany, Oct. 6 (Xinhua) -- Olympic champion Simone Biles, performing two new ultra-difficult elements, spurred the U.S. team to lead the women's qualification at the 2019 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships here on Friday.
The top eight teams in qualification advance to the team finals in Stuttgart. The top 24 gymnasts in the all-around and top eight on each apparatus qualify to the individual finals, with a maximum of two gymnasts from each nation in each final.
The U.S. team rallied in the 12th and final subdivision for a total of 174.205 points, surpassing first-day leader China's score of 169.161. The U.S. had the top team totals on vault and floor exercises but were unable to overcome China on balance beam after falls from Grace McCallum and Sunisa Lee.
Biles, the four-time defending world champion in all-around, qualified first to the individual final with 59.432 and once again advanced to all four apparatus finals.
She opened her night by landing her new triple-twisting double back in floor exercise and closed with new dismount from balance beam of double-twisting double tuck. Both elements are set to be named after her in the FIG Code of Points following official review.
The U.S. squad earned the top three spots in the floor exercise, while also register a one-two finish in the vault qualification. Jade Carey edged Biles for the best average on vault by only 0.001, with both of them vaulting Yurchenko 2 1/2 and Cheng Fei vaults.
Worlds debutante Lee qualified second to the all-around final with 57.166 and also qualified to finals on uneven bars and floor exercise.
The Russian team, with the top team total on uneven bars, scored 168.080 in the 10th subdivision to qualify third to the team final. Angelina Melnikova qualified fourth to the all-around final behind Melanie de Jesus dos Santos of France and also qualified to finals on uneven bars and floor exercise.
Former world champion Daria Spiridonova posted Russia's highest score with 15.016 on uneven bars, which qualified her second to the final behind defending champion Nina Derwael of Belgium.
The Chinese team, completing the qualification on Friday, qualified the second for the team final with 169.161. Liu Tingting and Li Shijia advanced to the finals of all-around and balance beam. Liu also made it for the uneven bars final and Qi Qi secured a berth in vault final.
France, Canada, the Netherlands, Britain, and Italy also advanced to Tuesday's team final.
The competitions will continue with men's qualification on Sunday.
