PREVIEW-Olympics-Gymnastics-China out to ruin another U.S. dream

By Sonia Oxley

BEIJING, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Americans Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin have already had their dream of Olympic team gold shattered and after China said they were ready to ruin things again in the all-round final, the favourites could be in trouble.

The U.S. pair topped qualifying for Friday's 24-gymnast final, setting up a mouth-watering duel between world champion Johnson and the gymnast who was expected to be the next golden girl before her team mate stole the limelight.

Both were eclipsed in Wednesday's team final by the highly technical skills of the Chinese, whose representatives in the prestigious individual final will be Yang Yilin and Jiang Yuyuan.

"Yang and Jiang have high potential and I think they can confront Shawn Johnson," China coach Li Shanzhen told a news conference.

"This is a competition, it's fair play so I really hope these members can do their utmost so the public and the whole world of gymnastics can see their best performance."

Liukin notched the top score of the Olympics so far in the team final when her elegant horizontal bar routine was given 16.900, while Johnson has been the most consistent performer.

"I feel they really are the best gymnasts at this tournament, the best complete gymnasts," U.S. team co-ordinator Martha Karolyi told reporters.

The pair are room mates in Beijing and good friends and have said that the most important thing is that one of them becomes the third American woman after Mary Lou Retton and Carly Patterson to win the title.

"I have predicted the outcome: either me first, her second or her first, me second. Either way we will push each other hard and we are ready to go and fight together," Johnson told reporters. "I can only hope and pray USA will come out on top.

"It's going to be great knowing that I have my team mate right there, helping me and I'll be helping her too. Of course, she and I are both going for gold. You don't work to go for a silver."

Among those who could spoil the Americans' plans are 2006 world champion Vanessa Ferrari of Italy, although she will have to raise her game after a series of errors left her qualifying in only 16th place.

World silver medallist Steliana Nistor of Romania has been boosted by a team bronze medal and Russian duo Anna Pavlova and Ksenia Semenova will be keen to make up for their country's failure to win an Olympic team medal for the first time.

The final starts at 0315 GMT on Friday at the National Indoor Stadium.

(Editing by Steve Ginsburg)

(For more stories visit our multimedia website "2008 Summer Olympics" here; and see our blog at blogs.reuters.com/china)