There were no mistakes from Evgeniya Kanaeva this time, and the defending Olympic champion finished rhythmic gymnastics qualifying right where she expected to be — in first place.

Kanaeva had been second behind Russian teammate Daria Dmitrieva going into the final rotation after a rare mishap in her hoop routine on the first day. But Kaneava put in a flawless performance in the ribbon yesterday which gave her 29.400 points and left her at the top of the standings with 116.000.

That was 1.45 points ahead of Dmitrieva, who qualified second. The final will be held today.

It was another impressive day for Russia on the carpet at Wembley Arena, with their team also qualifying for tomorrow’s group final in first place, despite a strong challenge from Italy.

In the individual competition, Kanaeva was keen to prove that her uncharacteristic mistake on Thursday was simply a small blip. The reigning world champion came through with an outstanding display of rhythm and accuracy in the ribbon.

Kanaeva walked onto the carpet with a focused look on her face and began by wrapping the ribbon around her shoulder. She then erupted in a cascade of color and movement, effortlessly dropping the ribbon behind her back and catching it. And she finished by appearing to throw the ribbon away but catching it with her feet and pulling it back towards her.

The audience applauded loudly and Kanaeva found herself at the top of the standings.

The 10 gymnasts with the highest scores after yesterday’s ribbon and club sections advanced to today’s final.

Azerbaijan’s Aliya Garayeva was third with a score of 111.850.

Britain’s Francesca Jones broke down in tears after finishing at the bottom of the qualification standings with a score of 94.625, despite the loud support of the home crowd.

Jones made an error at the start of her ribbon routine when she threw her ribbon away, and was unable to recover.

“There was nothing I could do to prevent it,” she said. “I tried my best and I am so grateful to be here. The support of everybody has been absolutely amazing. I just couldn’t have imagined it.”

In the group competition, the Russians scored 28.000 points in yesterday’s three ribbons and two hoops section, giving the country a total score of 56.375.

Chants of “Italia, Italia” filled Wembley Arena both before and after the Italian performance. But Italy were unable to overtake the Russians, receiving 27.700 points and finishing in second place in the qualifying standings with a score of 55.800.

The eight highest-placed teams advanced to the group final, with Belarus and Bulgaria qualifying in third and fourth positions respectively.

Russia will be the favourites to add to its collection of group gold medals won at the last three Olympics. Italy won group gold at the last three world championships.

“Today it was very hard to compete, the team was very concentrated, “ Italy team member Marta Pagnini said. “Russia is a great team, they are ready and they are strong, but on Sunday the competition is very hard because there are two apparatus so we will see who will be the strongest with the head to perform.”