More than 160 athletes from 34 countries will compete at the Stratford venue for the three remaining team places.

The competition, which doubles up as a London 2012 test event , runs until Sunday and features the likes of Olympic and world champions Russia, for whom Natalia Ischenko won six titles in Shanghai last summer.

Great Britain have already secured a qualification spot but will still compete - although the pair of Jenna Randall and Olivia Federici have pulled out of the duet event after the former suffered a sprained wrist.

The pair have been at the forefront of British improvement in recent years with silver in the duet at the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

Randall has also enjoyed solo success but it is not an Olympic event with only the duet and team competitions included in the Games.

For national performance director Biz Price, the opportunity to compete this week was essential in order to gain big event experience before the summer.

Price said: "We have never really had a big competition in the country so that is why I thought it was critical for the team to gain the experience from this competition.

Pressure

"We are not required to be here, in fact I'm sure there are some athletes and other countries that would prefer we are not.

"But as host nation we had the option and I wanted to take advantage of that option and let the athletes do a dry run as it would be for the Olympic Games and feel that pressure in the huge environment of a home audience and how that might affect them."

Looking to the Games, Price, who has been in charge since 2007, said: "At the Olympic Games for the duet and the team we would like to be in the top six and we are going to fight hard for that.

"As all nations are not here it is more difficult to predict where you are going to end up because some of the nations that have already qualified are not here.

"Our ranking at the end of this competition is not a worldwide ranking so it isn't as critical."