THE United States’ women gymnasts claimed gold at the world championships in Stuttgart on Wednesday night, while defending champion China had to settle for silver.
The United States led three of the four rotations to score 184.400 points with China finishing 0.950 behind.
China had been leading going into the final rotation — the floor — but saw their title hopes fade when their first competitor Li Shanshan fell backwards out of bounds coming out of her final somersault.
China team anchor Cheng Fei said: “The competition isn’t over yet, there are other titles to win.”
Cheng, 19, won three gold medals at last year’s world championships as China claimed an unprecedented eight titles.
Chinese head coach Huang Yubin added: “It’s competition, there is only one gold and one country can’t keep it. We eventually want to win the gold in Beijing.”
The U.S. team included just two veterans: Alicia Sacramone and Anastasia Liukin, with Samantha Peszek, 15, Shawn Johnson, 15, and 16-year-old Shayla Worley making their world debuts.
It is the first world team gold for both Sacramone and Liukin, who won silver last year as the U.S. gymnasts lost the title they won for the first time in 2003.
Defending vault champion Cheng fell back on her dismount, with the Chinese scoring 44.375, to the Americans’ 45.950.
Next up was uneven bars where Liukin, the 2005 world champion on the apparatus, led the way with 16.375, as the U.S. women extended their lead, scoring 47.325, to China’s 46.650.
But they fell behind on their third rotation — the beam — with Johnson falling, and Sacramone and Liukin having a few wobbles.
China had no such problems, surging to pole position with Li scoring highest ahead of Xiao Sha and Cheng, as the Asians scored a stunning 48.150.
And despite Cheng scoring highest on floor, the Chinese could not make up for the points lost by Li’s fall with Johnson and Sacramone pulling out dynamic and acrobatic performances to score second and third-highest respectively.
The U.S. women scored 45.325 on floor to China’s 44.275.
Romania, meanwhile, snatched the final podium place from the Russians who had been third going into their final rotation — the vault.
But after Yulia Lozhecko opened with a poor vault, Ekaterina Kramarenko mistimed her run up to the vault and did not jump, earning zero points. Performing last, Elena Zamolodchikova, the 2000 Olympic vault champion, had tears in her eyes as she competed knowing they could not make up the difference.
The 2006 bronze medalists finished last in the eight-team final.
Their misfortune was the delight of the Romanians who were back in the medals after last year’s finishing off the podium for first time since 1981.
“I’m very sorry for them (Russia), particularly the girls,” said Romanian coach Nicolae Forminte.
“It’s not easy. What happened is a matter for the coaches. For the gymnasts to have such a performance is a problem in the warmup.
“Things like that happen particularly in training. It’s not a mistake by the gymnasts but by the coaches.” (SD-Agencies)