A Chinese gymnast is in a coma after a bad fall at the national championships, a meet in which competitors were urged to try tough new routines ahead of the Beijing Olympics, state media reported.

Wang Yan was unresponsive after landing on her head on Sunday following a fall from the uneven parallel bars and was rushed to a Shanghai hospital, Xinhua news agency said.

No further information on her condition was provided in the report, released late on Sunday.

Hundreds of competitors have come from around China for the June 9-18 national championships.

The meet will serve as a preliminary trial for selecting China's team for the Beijing Games in August 2008 and will also help determine the team for September's World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany.

National team coach Zhang Peiwen said on Saturday that competitors would try out "new routines of high difficulty" as the national team pushes the envelope in hopes of a strong Olympic showing on home soil next year.

"As a qualifier for the Olympic Games and world championships, no one can downplay (the meet)," Zhang told Xinhua.

"All the high-difficulty routines will be shown here, so the championships will show the results of last winter's training."

It was not immediately known whether Wang fell trying to execute one of the high-difficulty routines.

China won an unprecedented eight titles at the 2006 world championships in Denmark, which the team's coaches have attributed to the use of such routines.

(China Daily via AFP June 12, 2007)