USA’s Simone Biles in action at the Aspire Dome yesterday. PICS: SYED OMAR
DOHA: When it comes to women’s team battle in artistic gymnastics, there is no match for the United States.
The Americans showed that to the world once again in Doha yesterday, as they comfortably clinched their fourth straight women’s team title by a record margin at the 48th edition of Artistic Gymnastics World Championships.
Led by a superb performance by superstar Simone Biles at Aspire Dome, team USA never fell behind and looked like the winners right from the start.
On Monday, the margin of victory for Chinese men over Russia in men’s team final was less than half point but it was not the case in the women’s team final. Team USA won the title with a lead of 8.766 points, the biggest margin of their six world team titles.
They amassed 171.629 points with Russia winning a silver medal with a tally of 162.863. China completed the podium with a bronze medal scoring 162.396 points. All the top three teams confirmed their team berths in 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Team USA, which started with the vault and uneven bars led in all the four rotations at the final.
Biles, a ten-time World Championships and three-time Olympic gold medallist, gave Team USA a superb start tallying a whopping 15.50 in the vault.
She continued her consistent performance marking - 14.866 (uneven bars), 13.733 (balance beam) and floor (14.766) - in the remaining three routines.
“We are very happy with the victory,” delighted Biles said yesterday after guiding her team to first gold medal at Doha Worlds.
“We as a team are doing a very good job. It is a result of teamwork,” she said.
Biles, who went to the hospital with a kidney stone just hours before women qualifiers on Friday, was hoping to bag a maximum number of gold medals in Doha.
“There is a lot of nerves, hopefully, I will do my best and see where we stand (in the remaining events),” she said.
“It’s very exciting to be in Doha and maybe we’ll go out to explore places and communities,” she said.
The victorious US women’s team members and an official celebrate on the podium during 48th Artistic Gymnastics World Championships Doha 2018 at the Aspire Dome yesterday.
Russia, which secured their 5th team medal at the Worlds yesterday were also impressive through the final. After they finished the first rotation on the third position, they continued to occupy the second spot till the final routine.
Star, Aliia Mustafina, who is making an international return after 16 months, was amazing particularly in uneven bars in which she scored 14.500, and received a well-deserved applause from spectators.
Team Russia players were happy to seize the silver medal despite injury setbacks ahead of the World Championships.
“We are happy to win a medal. All the team members and coaching staff put in a lot of effort,” said Mustafina.
Commenting on her Tokyo Games plans, she said: “I am 65 to 70 per cent right now. Olympics are very far and I would continue to do my training and preparations.”
China, who ensured the third position after the first two rotations, made a great comeback in the final rotation to win a bronze medal, after slipping to 7th in the penultimate rotation.
China’s Liu Tingting said her team did not panic after falling behind.
“I was confident that we can manage to fight back in the final,” Tingting said at a post-final press conference.
“We were banking on the strength and confidence. I am happy that we have achieved third position and a berth in the Olympics,” she added.
Brazil (159.830), who finished 7th ahead of bottom-placed Germany (159.428), had a first-ever team medal at Worlds in their sights after they replaced China following the third rotation. But their gymnasts failed to cope up with the pressure as China came back strongly.
Canada finished fourth with a total of 161.644 points while France (161.294) and Japan (160.262) finished on 5th and 6th positions respectively.
Today, the title in men’s all-around will be decided with China’s world champion Xiao Ruoteng and Russia’s Nagornyy Nikita starting as favourites. The duo finished on the top two positions respectively in the qualifying round.
America’s Mikulak Samuel, who took the third position in the preliminary round, will also start among the top contenders as a total of 24 gymnasts will compete in the final.
