Kristian Thomas has GB on a high

After yesterday's opening day of qualification in Nanning, Britain lay second behind hosts China in the standings but their score should be more than enough to make Tuesday's eight-team final.

Thomas, the oldest member of the British team at 25, also faces a wait to discover if he has made the individual finals on the vault and high bar.

In truth that may be unlikely after the Earls Gymnastics Club ace scored 14.8 on the high bar and finished in sixth place overall with an average of 15.033 on the vault – apparatus on which he claimed a bronze medal a year ago.

These championships promise to be much harder fought however, as they form the first part of qualification for Rio 2016.

Top British performer was Daniel Purvis who competed on all six apparatus giving him and the team an all-around total of 88.706 points.

Teenager Nile Wilson also shone as an all-around gymnast with a fine display for 88.323, while a slightly disappointing performance from Max Whitlock left him just behind with 88.198.

With only two individual gymnasts per country making it in to the top 24 individual all-around final, it is Purvis and Wilson who look set to be representing Britain on Thursday with the highly-fancied Whitlock missing out.

"It's not always the case that you come off the floor at the end of a competition happy but I can definitely say that today," said Purvis. "It was all about competing the best routines for the team and I felt I did that, making the all-around is a massive bonus."

Britain's score of 357.193 left them just five points behind China with Russia and the USA set to get their campaigns underway today.

Purvis added: "As a team we are really well prepared and that showed as everyone made a big contribution, having said that we know we can do even better and with a clean start in the team finals we'll all be going out there to chase a medal for GB."

In terms of individual magic the standout performance perhaps went to debutant Courtney Tulloch who claimed third place on the rings with a score of 15.700, which he later admitted he thought was a mistake when it first appeared on the scoreboard.

Wilson's top performance also came on the high bar, his score of 14.900 placing him in fourth place overnight and in with a good chance of making the top eight and the final.

Purvis is similarly placed on parallel bar where thanks to the "two per country" rule he sits in fourth while on floor he is currently fifth with 15.433.

There will be a nervier wait for Dan Keatings and Whitlock, both pommel horse specialists having difficulties and currently sitting in fifth and sixth places with strong pommel gymnasts to come today.