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SPORTS Friday 11 OctOber 2019
Simone Biles wins 5th all-around title at gymnastics worlds

By JAMES ELLINGWORTH viet Union's record streak at it was really surprising."
AP Sports Writer world championships in the Bronze medalist Melnikova
STUTTGART, Germany (AP) 1970s and 1980s. said she was "really happy"
— There was only one way Tang wasn't even meant with making the podium
for Simone Biles to finish to be competing Thursday after missing out last year
off yet another dominant but became China's first by 0.034 points. It was her
world championship per- all-around medalist in eight first medal in an individual
formance. She dropped years. She'd qualified third- event after team silver at
the mic. best of China's gymnasts, the 2016 Olympics and the
Biles marked her fifth all- with only two per country last two world champion-
around world title by end- allowed in the final. How- ships.
ing her floor routine with a ever, Tang was drafted in Biles' U.S. teammate Sunisa
mic-drop gesture — a nod to replace teammate Liu Lee placed second in qual-
to her social-media fol- Tingting, who fell on two ifying, but her hopes of a
lowing. Biles said the idea routines in Tuesday's team medal were dashed when
came from Twitter, and it final. she came off the uneven Simone Biles of the United States performs on the vault in the
was certainly fitting on a Tang said she didn't know bars. She finished eighth. women's all-around final at the Gymnastics World Champion-
day when no rival came she was contending for a "I feel like I kind of let the ships in Stuttgart, Germany, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2019.
close. medal until after finishing nerves get to me a little bit, Associated Press
"It wasn't my best routine her final routine. but it's all part of the learn-
but we just thought it would "I hoped to do what I'm like ing experience," Lee said. France's Melanie de Jesus painful landing on the vault,
be fun," she said. in training, and didn't really "There's going to be a lot dos Santos had qualified and the 2017 all-around sil-
It may not have been her think too much about the more meets to come be- third-best but fell twice on ver medalist faces a race
best, but the routine still results," she said through fore the Olympics, so hope- uneven bars and placed to recover for Saturday's
earned her the highest a translator. "I didn't even fully I can kind of get myself 20th. Ellie Black of Canada vault and Sunday's beam
floor score of the day. One watch the results myself, so back together for that." was on crutches after a finals.q
of the few blemishes was
skidding out of bounds on
the landing of a triple-dou-
ble, a skill no other female
gymnast performs.
Biles' fifth world all-around
title, two more than any
other female gymnast has
ever managed, was won
by a full 2.1 points. The mar-
gin of victory was bigger
than any of her four previ-
ous victories at worlds and
matched her 2016 Olympic
win.
With another Olympic
Games less than a year
away, Biles feels on top of
the world.
"I feel like right now actually
I'm pretty confident in my
gymnastics and myself and
the performances I put out
there, so I feel like I'm prob-
ably more confident going
in today than I was at the
Olympics," she said.
Biles' score of 58.999 was
far out of reach for China's
Tang Xijing, a late stand-
in for a teammate who
ended up in second after
other medal contenders
stumbled. Angelina Mel-
nikova of Russia was third
on 56.399.
Biles now has a total 22
world championship med-
als across all events, the
most by any woman and
one shy of Belarusian Vitaly
Scherbo's men's record.
Biles' victory makes it seven
wins in a row for the United
States in the women's all-
around, matching the So-