WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP: CHINA'S WOMEN TAKE LEAD U.S. FALLS TO THIRD; RUSSIA DISAPPOINTS WITH 5TH IN PRELIMS.

Byline: Ramona Shelburne Staff Writer

ANAHEIM - Who says you need international experience to handle the pressure of the World Gymnastics Championships?

Despite having only one gymnast with world-championship experience, China scored a 147.697, the highest score in the two days of women's team qualification, and moved ahead of defending Olympic and world champion Romania (148.120) and Sunday night's leader, the United States (147.697), in front of 4,645 at the Pond.

``The younger girls with less experience actually had less pressure because they just go through it,'' Chinese coach Shanzhen Lu said. ``... The team handled the pressure very well today.''

The top eight teams from qualifying advance to Wednesday night's team final, and the top 12 earn berths at the 2004 Olympics. Also at stake were berths in Friday's all-around competition and the individual event finals Saturday and Sunday.

Among the disappointments Monday was pre-event favorite Russia, which was shaky on the uneven bars and finished fifth at 145.572, more than two points behind the third-place Americans. Ukraine was fourth at 146.994.

``The first gymnast who started us off seemed very confident, but when she fell, it had a bad influence on the team, like a chain reaction,'' Russian coach Leonid Arkayev said.

The Russians scored well on their first event, the vault, but had only one gymnast score above 9.0 on their next event, the uneven bars. That gymnast was Svetlana Khorkina (9.450), the reigning queen of Russian gymnastics who won five consecutive world titles on the uneven bars until last year. However, she will not get a chance to add to that total after being edged out of the event final by Ukrainian Irina Krasnynska.

Khorkina, the two-time all-around world champion, is among the favorites in the all-around competition and qualified with a 37.249. Elena Gomez of Spain (37.549) had the highest all-around score in the preliminaries, followed by Chellsie Memmel of the United States (37.449), Khorkina, Irina Yarotska of Ukraine (37.062) and Ye Fan of China (36.823).

Though she is not expected to win the all-around, one of the best performances Monday came from 28-year-old Oksana Chusovitina of Uzbekistan, the oldest female competitor who qualified for the all-around final Friday night with a 36.136.

--U.S. men's preview: Something special seems to happen each time a major international gymnastics championship has been held on U.S. soil.

In 1984 at the Los Angeles Olympics, Mary Lou Retton won the all-around title and the U.S men's team won the team gold. In 1991 at the world championships in Indianapolis, Kim Zmeskal became America's first world all-around champion, and in 1996 at the Atlanta Olympics, the U.S. women took home the team gold.

So what's in store for this year in Anaheim?

The first team gold medal at the world championships for the U.S. men's team? How about an all-around men's world champion?

Both are possible at tonight's men's team finals and Thursday's men's all-around finals.

Despite early setbacks on floor exercise and pommel horse in Sunday's qualifying rounds, the U.S. men had the highest team score and two of its all-arounders - Paul Hamm and Jason Gatson - finished in the top five in qualifying.

But with the new ``three up, three count'' format of the team finals, one mistake and all of those hopes could be dashed. Here's the U.S. men's lineup for tonight's team finals:

Floor: Jason Gatson, Paul Hamm, Morgan Hamm.

Pommel horse: Morgan Hamm, Brett McClure, Paul Hamm.

Still rings: Raj Bhavsar, Gatson, Blaine Wilson.

Vault: McClure, Paul Hamm, Morgan Hamm.

Parallel bars: Paul Hamm, Wilson, Gatson.

High bar: McClure, Wilson, Paul Hamm.

The eight teams in tonight's final (in order of qualifying) are: United States, Japan, China, Romania, South Korea, Russia, Ukraine and France.

Ramona Shelburne, [phone]

ramona.shelburne(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

Kang Xin of China performs on the balance beam during the World Gymnastics Championships qualifying round. China's team score put it in first place, ahead of Romania and the United States.

Sue Ogrocki/Associated Press