Simone Biles in action during the women’s all-around final yesterday. Picture: Syed Omar
DOHA: Even on her ‘bad’ day, Simone Biles is by far the best.
Despite falling twice during yesterday’s final at the 48th Artistic Gymnastics World Championships Doha 2018, the four-time Rio Olympic champion created history by winning a record-breaking fourth women’s all-around title, and that too with a record margin.
Biles competing in Doha with a kidney stone, scored 57.491 points finishing 1.693 points ahead of Japan’s Mai Murakami to win her 12th overall world gold medal. Morgan Hurd, who was defending her title finished with a bronze medal after tallying 55.732 points.
A good number of fans turned out at the Aspire Dome to watch the world’s best gymnast chasing a historic title, but she got off to a shaky start, shockingly sitting down during the vault landing. Biles still scored 14.533 points because her difficulty level was high.
Two rotations later, she committed another uncharacteristic mistake when she came off the balance beam and got 13.233 points, with her lead falling to 0.90 points before the last rotation.
In floor, her final routine, she amassed 15.000 crossing Murakami comfortably by 1.693 points for a gold medal, overcoming Shawn Johnson’s margin-of-victory record of 1.25 points.
The margin of victory, despite her falls, marked the largest of her four all-around world titles.
Besides breaking her tie with retired Russian Svetlana Khorkina for the most women’s all-around titles, the American also matched retired Belarusian Vitaly Scherbo for the most career world gold medals with 12.
The 21-year-old, however, was not convinced with her performance yesterday as only her huge advantage in difficulty carried her to the title.
“Definitely, it was not the best of my days,” Biles told reporters after claiming the gold medal.
“It was a tough day. I didn’t know if I was going to pull it off today, and then I started doubting myself, and I tried to track back to training and see how well that went. I tried to just think of that. You should always fall back on training because I’ve had such good training here,” she added.
On her falls, Biles said: “I think I gave everyone out there a heart attack, but it is what it is. Even the best falls sometimes, but I’m excited that I pulled it out at the end.
“I was definitely shocked. Vault was very uncharacteristic, but I haven’t been as confident at these World Championships on beam as I have been in past competitions. So it’s a little scary going out there. Vault shook me up a little bit, but I tried not to get off-track and tried to focus on the other three events,” she added.
Murakami, the reigning floor exercise world champion, lived up to expectations in her favourite routine scoring 14.000 to edge past Morgan to secure silver medal.
“I just wanted to do a four-four (four clean routines) and I did and it brought the silver medal. And I wanted to finish with a smile,” the Japanese said before adding that gold medal was not in her mind when Biles fell.
“Instead of thinking I could win, I was thinking ‘Oh, Biles can fall.
“I will have to put lots more difficult stuff. I need to raise my (difficulty) score and we need to as a team,” she said.
Biles’ team-mate Hurd led in the first rotation with 14.600 in vault but mistake in balance beam where she could earn only 12.933 points cost her dearly.
“Vault, bars and floor went really well. I’m not completely happy with beam. I had kind of a large mistake. I’m not satisfied, and I would rather it have been little better, but that’s OK. It happened. I was trying to be a little too perfect,” Hurd said.
Two-time European champion Nina Derwael was also impressive and wowed fans with her impressive routines but was unfortunate as she missed a medal by just 0.033 points.
Biles ready to make more history in Doha
Meanwhile, Biles, who has already bagged two more gold medals in Doha – the team and all-around, is in contention for four more in the individual apparatus today and tomorrow. She is the hot favourite to win in three of them, with uneven bars not being her best routine.
But if the American superstar manages to win all titles, she will become the first woman to earn six medals at a World Championships since Yelena Shushunova did for Soviet Union in 1987.
