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 The 2014 World Championships concluded Sunday in Nanning with the second day of apparatus finals. Pictured: Oleg Vernyayev won parallel bars, the first world championships gold medal for Ukraine since 2006. The 2014 World Championships concluded Sunday in Nanning with the second day of apparatus finals. Women's all-around champion Simone Biles (U.S.) won two more gold medals, taking titles on both balance beam and floor exercise with hit routines. Biles now owns six world championship titles, putting her ahead of Shannon Miller as the most successful U.S. gymnast at the world championships. Nanning's own Bai Yaiwen, in her first world championships, hit a beautiful exercise on balance beam (featuring a textbook Yang Bo leap) to win the silver medal in front of the home crowd. Russia's Aliya Mustafina picked up bronze medals on both balance beam and floor exercise to bring her total world championships medal haul to 11. (Compatriot Svetlana Khorkina, in the stands in Nanning, holds the most for a female with 20.) Mustafina committed a major error on balance beam after her consecutive front aerials turned into a front aerial, front walkover combination (costing her .5 for having no required acro series). But with major mistakes from most of the other competitors, Mustafina surprisingly held on to a medal. On floor exercise, she upgraded her first pass, adding two whips before her Arabian double front, to take another bronze medal. Romanian star Larisa Iordache lost her chance to win the balance beam title after falling on her usually consistent ff, tucked full. The all-around silver medalist took another silver on floor exercise behind Biles. In the men's competition, Ri Se Gwang matched female North Korean compatriot Hong Un Jong by winning the men's vault title. Ri managed to land the two vaults he invented — the piked Dragulescu and full-twisting Tsukahara double back — which were also the two most difficult vaults of the finals valued at 6.4 Difficulty). Ri stood up both vaults despite injuries to his ankles that required him to be carried off the podium again by his coach. Igor Radivilov, third on vault at the 2012 Olympics, picked up the silver medal, the first world medal for Ukraine since Alexander Vorobyov won the bronze on still rings at the 2009 World Championships. U.S. team member Jake Dalton won the bronze with two clean vaults. Two-time world champion and 2012 Olympic champion Yang Hak Seon (Korea) fell on both his vaults. Yang, who has been suffering from injury, attempted a new, 6.4-Difficulty vault, a 3 1/2-twisting Tsukahara, but sat down. He also fell on his namesake vault, the triple-twisting front handspring layout front. Oleg Vernyayev performed a flawless routine on parallel bars, ending with an absolutely nailed double front-half dismount. He is the first world champion for Ukraine since Irina Krasnyanskaya won balance beam in 2006. 2011 world champion Danell Leyva (U.S.) also performed the routine of his life for silver, while Japan's Ryohei Kato won the bronze medal. The competition ended with Dutch star Epke Zonderland (The Netherlands) defending his world title on high bar. Superstar Kohei Uchimura (Japan) took second behind Zonderland, and Croatia's Marijo Možnik placed third to win his first world championships medal. Uchimura, who extended his dominance to five consecutive world all-around titles in Nanning, is now the most decorated Japanese gymnast at the world championships. Uchimura now owns 16 world championship medals, surpassing Eizo Kenmotsu 15 medals won from 1970 to 1979. Vitaly Scherbo (Belarus) remains the all-time record holder with 23 world championship medals. The world championships return to Europe next year, taking place Oct. 23-Nov. 1 in Glasgow, Scotland. Click here for full results from the 2014 World Championships Comments (0)
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