LONDON — Deng Linlin already has one gold medal from China's team win at the Beijing Olympics. Now she's looking for one of her very own.

Deng tops the qualifying at the world gymnastics championships, though there are still three more sessions and all-around favorite Bridget Sloan of the United States has yet to compete. Deng scored 56.350 points Wednesday, putting her ahead of Ekaterina Kurbatova and Olympic bronze medalist Yang Yilin.

Kurbatova topped the first qualifying session with 55.950 points after a solid, though unspectacular, performance. The women's all-around final is Friday.

Kayla Williams made quite the debut. The 16-year-old American, who was competing at the step below elites just a few months ago, served notice that she'll be one to watch leading up to the 2012 Games with the best scores on vault and second-best on floor.

Though Deng was a key part of China's team, the most attention she got in Beijing came from the age scandal. Gymnasts must be 16 the year of the Olympics in order to compete, and several of China's athletes were accused of being too young.

The International Gymnastics Federation eventually cleared Deng and her teammates.

Now, she's got everybody's attention again. The reigning national champion, Deng is performing with more polish and confidence than she did last year. She's got serious skills, too, putting up the highest scores of the day so far on both floor exercise and balance beam.

She delighted the crowd with her floor routine, shaking her hips and waving her hands in time to her Spanish-themed music. And while tiny, she packs plenty of power, getting so much height on her tumbling runs one of those London taxis could have rumbled beneath her.

She had several wobbles on balance beam, including one that brought her to a complete stop and forced her to thrust an arm out to steady herself. But her routine is so jam-picked with tricks her difficulty more than makes up for minor errors here and there.