Sport

Simone Biles wins world title by record margin despite falls

American gymnast takes all-round title after falls on beam and vault

Simone Biles competes in the women’s all-around final of the 2018 FIG Artistic Gymnastics Championships at the Aspire Dome in Doha. The American gymnast became the first woman to win four all-around world championships. Photograph: Karim Jaafar/AFP/Getty Images
Simone Biles competes in the women’s all-around final of the 2018 FIG Artistic Gymnastics Championships at the Aspire Dome in Doha. The American gymnast became the first woman to win four all-around world championships. Photograph: Karim Jaafar/AFP/Getty Images
Thu Nov 01 2018 - 15:49

Simone Biles overcame falls on the balance beam and vault to become the first woman to win four all-around world championships in Doha on Thursday.

The 21-year-old American finished with a score of 57.491, seeing off Japan's Mai Murakami, who finished 1.693 points behind for the silver. Morgan Hurd, last year's world champion in Biles's absence, finished 0.066 behind Murakami for bronze.

The margin of victory, even accounting for Biles’s first falls in more than 60 career routines in the Olympics or world championships, marked the largest of her four all-around world titles.

Biles, now on two golds at this year's worlds after leading the United States to the team title on Tuesday, will have four more opportunities for silverware in the apparatus finals and can become the first woman to win six medals at a world championships since Yelena Shushunova of the Soviet Union in 1987. - Guardian