Chinese debutant gymnasts better than expectation 11:23, September 02, 2007 Chinese gymnasts enjoyed a good start in the Stuttgart World Gymnastics Championships and their performance was "better than expectation," officials from Chinese team said on Saturday. Head coach Lu Shanzhen expressed his satisfaction with the performances of Yang Yilin, Xiao Sha, Li Shanshan and Jiang Yuyuan, the four young gymnasts who made their debut in the world championships. On Saturday morning, the defending champion joined gymnasts from Poland, Hungary and Lithuania to start the qualification round of first group, which lasts from Sept. 1 to Sept. 9. All Chinese gymnasts finished with comparatively good results except Xiao Sha, who dropped from the beam. "We are in the first subdivision and among the first to show up, our performance is good in terms of match time," said Lu. "If they show up during the night or after the opening ceremony (to be staged on Saturday evening), they would stage a better show as they could adapt themselves more to the competition," he said. "The four debutant gymnasts had good performance, which exceeded our expectation we had cast prior to the championships," he added. The head coach cited the uneven bars, the first event of Saturday's qualification for the Chinese team, as supporting example. He said all five gymnasts had staged their performance steadily in the uneven bars, thus opening up a good start for the whole team. "Although Li Shanshan failed to show high-level performance in the uneven bars, but she demonstrated her strength in the beam exercise," he added. Li Shanshan got 16.325 points in the beam exercise, almost sealing a place in the final of this event. Chinese team manager Zhang Peiwen also expressed his satisfaction with the Chinese gymnasts' performance on Saturday. "They have demonstrated their performance steadily in their debut on international competition like the world championships," he said. "Source: Xinhua" .