It's a wrap! Rediff.com presents a roundup of the World Gymnastics Championships, Glasgow, which were held from October 23 to November 1.
American Simone Biles was the proud owner of a record 10 golds at the world championships on Sunday just three days after almost toppling off the balance beam and then tumbling out of bounds on the floor in the all-around final.
The 4-foot-9-inch Biles stands head and shoulders above any other female gymnast in the history of the championships after securing a 'four-peat' of winning the team, all-around, balance beam and floor exercise events for the second year running.
Since making her worlds debut in 2013, she has achieved levels of excellence unmatched by any other woman -- winning three successive all-around titles heading into next year's Rio Olympics.
But with the Games still nine months away, Biles was more interested in making amends for the less than perfect performances that she felt somewhat tainted her romp to the all-around gold on Thursday.
Days after what her coach Aimee Boorman called ‘the save of the century’ in the all-around final -- when Biles grabbed the four-inch wide beam with both hands to avoid falling off -- the American gave a near-flawless display on the same apparatus.
She was rock solid as she spun around 900 degrees on her right toes and flew through her acrobatic flips and somersaults.
When she nailed her full-twisting double back somersault dismount, Boorman was leaping in delight.
Biles's score of 15.358 confirmed she had obliterated the opposition as she finished more than a point ahead of Dutchwoman Sanne Wevers.
"I was thinking that I didn’t stick my dismount so far in these championships, and then I stuck it. So I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I did it’," said Biles.
‘It feels amazing to redeem myself after the all-around final’
She took just over an hour on Sunday to increase her total world medals tally to 14, including four golds and a bronze from Glasgow.
"It feels amazing to redeem myself after the all-around final," said Biles.
In her final competitive performance of 2015, she succeeded in her aim to "end it with a bang" by producing a dazzling, hip-swinging floor-exercise.
A score of 15.800 made her the most successful women's gymnast ever.
"I know what I achieved and that is unbelievable. I am proud of myself,” she added with a huge smile.
Russia’s Svetlana Khorkina, Romania’s Gina Gogean and the Soviet Union’s Larisa Latynina had shared the previous record for most world championship golds with nine each.
You dethrones defending champion to win parallel bars
You Hao earned the Chinese men's team their first gold medal at this year's gymnastics world championships after eclipsing Ukrainian defending champion Oleg Verniaiev in the parallel bars final.
After a week of disappointment and near misses, You sparked jubilant celebrations among the Chinese contingent on the final day of competition when he edged out Verniaiev by 0.15 of a point with a score of 16.216.
Travelling the bars end-to-end, You swung into a series of rigidly straight handstands before nailing his dismount to the delight of his coach.
Whitlock steals spotlight
It was 112 years in the making as Max Whitlock ended Britain's hunt for a male champion at the gymnastics world championships on Saturday when 15.366 was the magic number for four women sharing the asymmetric bars title.
In the pommel horse final when the judges declared Whitlock had edged out team mate Louis Smith by the narrowest of margins.
Smith produced a flawless display and sat on top of the standings with 16.033 until Whitlock, the final competitor on the horse, leapfrogged the Olympic silver medallist by 0.1 of a point with a more dynamic programme that sparked jubilant celebrations among the hollering crowd at the Hydro Arena.
The British duo stood shoulder-to-shoulder as they waited for Whitlock's score and when it flashed up as 16.133 on the giant screen, Smith grabbed a Union Jack to begin the double celebration.
"I had dreamed of this moment but never felt I would get emotional," said Whitlock, who also earned a silver behind Japan's floor exercise supremo Kenzo Shirai earlier in the day.
"I can't believe it. I trained in the gym thousands and thousands of routines building up to this moment, so when you go clean like I did today, you can't express what you feel. I'm over the moon. It's been an amazing journey."
'15.366 gang'
Fan Yilin, Viktoriia Komova, Daria Spiridonova and Madison Kocian shared an unprecedented four gold medals when the judges could not decide between their asymmetric bars routines -- leaving them all deadlocked on the same score.
The sudden and unexpected formation of the '15.366 gang' caused shock and amusement in equal measure among the four champions who jostled for space on a crowded top platform of the winner's podium, while the two lower levels remained empty.
A prolonged medals ceremony featured three national anthems -- China, Russia and the United States -- being played. Organisers also had to abandon the flag-raising ceremony as there was no room for three flags on the same horizontal pole.
American Kocian described it as ‘super crazy’, China's Fan found it ‘hilarious’ while Russia's Spiridonova said: “Wow! I've never seen anything like this. I didn't think anything like this would even be possible. It's great that we are in this together and we will share the victory.”
Her compatriot Komova added: "It was hard to deal with the nerves after they started to announce the results. I am personally shocked. It's the first time the judges had such a hard time deciding who the champion was.”
Shirai shines
On the floor, Kenzo Shirai capped his programme full of daring and high-flying acrobatics with a quadruple twisting somersault at the end, securing a second world title in three years.
A slight side step following his third tumbling pass took little away from Shirai's routine as the Japanese was the only competitor to break the 16-point barrier with a score of 16.233.
"As I experienced defeat last year, I know the importance to keep improving. This time I was able to surprise everyone with my difficulty," he said.
Uchimura claims record sixth all-around world title
When Kohei Uchimura capped a high-flying horizontal bar routine with a perfect landing on Friday, he instantly held up six fingers to the crowd confident that he had just won a record sixth all-around title at the gymnastics world championships.
The Japanese hero did not even bother to hang around for the judges' verdict to begin his celebrations, urging the crowd with both hands to cheer louder.
When his score of 15.100 flashed up, it confirmed the victory and showed his margin of success over surprise Cuban silver medallist Manrique Larduet was 1.634 points after the Japanese amassed a combined 92.332 points across six apparatus.
