China wins gymnastics duel

BEIJING, Aug. 13 (UPI) -- With Fei Cheng leading the way and the home crowd roaring with every performance Wednesday, China won its first Olympic women's team gymnastics gold medal.

The Chinese out-dueled the United States in one of the most anticipated showdowns of the Beijing Games.

After routines by both squads on the vault, uneven bars and balance beam, the United States was within a point of the Chinese, but the Americans could not come through the magical effort needed to surpass the small, acrobatic girls dressed in red.

China finished with 188.900 points to the Americans' 186.525. Romania, which had won this competition in each of the last two Olympics, finished third with 181.525.

The final set of routines for both teams came in the floor exercise and the Americans went first. When Alicia Sacramone could manage a score of only 14.125, the United States' fate was all but sealed.

American stars Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin, who will likely battle Fei for the individual gold medal Friday, put together solid but unspectacular routines.

That left China needing only to be steady in its floor routines and the three gymnastics came through. Fei, needing only a score of just under 14 points in her last routine to clinch the gold medal, produced a total of 15.450.