China's women gymnasts dominated the first qualification round with a total of 248.275 points at the Beijing Olympics on Sunday.

Defending Olympic champion Romania finished second in 238.425 points in morning's qualification subdivision which was also participated in by two mix groups.

The Chinese girls got a good start on their first apparatus of balance beam and maintained first place throughout all the four apparatus.

Earlier, China had feared the draw which places them in the first qualification round with balance beam being the first apparatus may be an adverse element because beam is prone to errors.

Cheng Fei of the Chinese team, a world champion for vault and floor exercise, contributed to her team with stable performance, in particular, in floor exercise and vault.

(Xinhua News Agency August 10, 2008)