With a surprising fifth-place showing in the qualifying round, the Canadian men's team will end up with its best result at a world gymnastics championships regardless of how it does in the finals Tuesday.

Eight teams advanced, and Canada's best previous result in the men's team event was ninth in 2003.

``This takes us to another level internationally,'' said elated Gymnastics Canada CEO Jean-Paul Caron. ``To place fifth in the world is just a phenomenal result and it's really going to make people stand up and take notice of our program and our gymnasts.''

The team is comprised of Calgarians Kyle Shewfelt, Adam Wong and Nathan Gafuik, Ken Ikeda of Abbotsford, B.C., David Kikuchi of Halifax and Brandon O'Neill of Edmonton.

Canada competed Saturday and had to wait until the end of competition Sunday, when remaining countries in the field took turns on the six apparatus, to see if its performance held up. No problem.

China wound up first, Japan second and Russia third, followed by Romania, Canada, Germany, Switzerland and Belarus.

In the qualifying round, five gymnasts competed on each apparatus with the best four results counting towards the overall score. In the team final, only three gymnasts will compete per event and no results are dropped, adding to the pressure to complete clean routines.

The U.S. team was 13th during the weekend and failed to advance.

The first day of women's qualifying is Monday. The best Canadian women's result was sixth in 1989.