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Simone Biles put herself in a place all by herself at the 48th Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Doha, Qatar Thursday evening. The 21-year-old who had two falls during the competition had the difficult values working for her as she secured a fourth world championship all-around title at the Aspire Dome. She surpassed Russia’s Svetlana Khorkina for the most world all-around titles won. Japan’s Mai Murakami earned the silver with American Morgan Hurd coming out with the bronze.
After a huge victory in Tuesday’s team final, the United States would be fully in charge of running for two spots in the all-around competition. Hurd and Biles stand out as former back to back world champions with the 17-year-old trying to go for a second straight. While it would be a friendly competition between herself and the three-time champion of the event, it would be a race to the gold medal.
Hurd began the race with a great vault that gave her a 14.600 overtaking Murakami who scored a 14.566. Biles was next to go and set herself for a massive scoring result with a 6.40 point difficulty value. On her attempt, the 21-year-old didn’t get her hands in the exact place leading to the rarest of falls to the pad. She moved herself to the right that clearly had her uncentered earning a 14.533 in the process.
Hurd put together a solid run on the uneven bars delivering a seamless routine that had very little errors in it. The 17-year old’s dismount was perfectly sticking the landing entirely that earned her a 14.333. Biles followed her teammate starting with a DV just a tenth higher. Despite a step backwards, the all-around Olympic champion got a 14.725 taking the lead. Belgium’s Nina Derwael scored the best result with a 15.100 putting her into third at the halfway point.
The third rotation took them to the balance beam where things again didn’t go well for Biles. While most of her routine was good with a slight mistake, the biggest moment came when the three-time champion fell off the apparatus. It took a toll on her overall score of 14.233 that put her in first. Derwael stayed in the hunt putting together a great routine that scored her a 13.733 tying with France’s Melanie de Jesus dos Santos for the best score.
Hurd was last to go on the beam and had some nerves from watching her teammate earlier. A balance check followed by a near fall where she put her hands on the beam cost her dearly. The American took a 12.933 that put her in fourth place at the end of the third. The top five was just under a point making the last rotation anyone’s to make their way on the podium.
Russia’s Angelica Melnikova started things on the floor with a step out of bounds on her second tumbling pass. With one small mistake on her final tumbling pass, Melnikova lost more than four-tenths which gave her a 13.633 which took her out of the running. Derwael had a clean floor routine but her difficulty being 4.9 gave her a 13.300 putting her ahead of Melnikova with three to go.
Last years floor champion was next and took a stumble on her first turn of the routine. Murakami had some minor mistakes going forward but somehow scored a 14 to put her into the lead. Both Hurd and Biles were the final two to compete that secured Japan a medal. Hurd clearly found her comfort zone on the floor putting together a clean routine that earned her 13.866 that put her short of defending her title. Biles was last to take Murakami off the top of the leaderboard. She started with a big tumbling pass that ended with a huge step out of bounds losing four tenths. She kept the rest of her routine clean to score a 15.000 making her a four-time all-around champion.
Murakami gave Japan their first world silver in women’s all-around gymnastics making it a huge moment for her and her country. Hurd ended in third just 66 hundredths behind Murakami to make it back to back podium finishes for the 17-year-old. With the major parts of the competition out of the way, it would be the apparatus finals that each qualifier would compete in before the event came to its conclusion.
