Americans Claire Pease and Reese Esponda top the podium on floor at world gymnastics championships

ROTTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) — Claire Pease and Reese Esponda gave the Americans a golden sendoff at the world gymnastics championships, going one-two in the floor exercise on Sunday, the final day of competition.

The two 17-year-olds boosted the U.S. women’s team medal haul to seven by putting together a pair of dazzling routines that topped the eight-woman final.

Pease, who earned silver on vault Saturday, captured her third medal of the meet by posting a score of 13.866 behind the strength of some of the most difficult tumbling passes being done in the world at the moment.

The performance served as an exclamation point for Pease, who hit all four of her routines during the team final, when the U.S. finished a close second to resurgent China.

Esponda, who works out of World Champions Centre in Houston, the home gym of two-time Olympic champion Simone Biles, captured silver with a 13.566, then had Biles — who is still undecided about making a run at the 2028 Games in Los Angeles — drape the medal over her neck during the awards ceremony. Maiana Prat of France won the bronze.

Canada’s Lia Grace Redick (13.300) and Lia-Monica Fontaine (13.200) finished fifth and sixth, respectively. 

Pease and Esponda’s teammate Skye Blakely, who won the all-around on Friday and on Saturday became the fourth American woman to capture four medals at a single world championships, finished sixth behind Algerian star Kaylia Nemour in the beam finals.

The 21-year-old Blakely, perhaps a little gassed at the end of a week-plus of competition, avoided any major miscues but wasn’t crisp enough to earn a spot on the medal stand for the fifth time in five days.

Not that it mattered. Two months after wondering if she was doing the right thing by trying to be an all-arounder at the elite level after a difficult second day at the U.S. championships, Blakely will head home on Monday with the biggest non-Olympic medal of them all on her resume.

“To come this far from Day 2 of nationals, it truly means a lot,” Blakely told reporters. “And it’s just a reflection of hard work and setting your mind on what you really want.”

Blakely’s beam score of 13.666 was well off the 14.566 set by Nemour and Zhang Qingying of China. Nemour, who barely qualified for the final, won her second gold in as many days on a tiebreaker. Nemour’s two event golds — she also triumphed on uneven bars, her signature event, on Saturday — took some of the sting out of a fourth-place finish in the all-around marked by a miscue on vault in the finals that cost her valuable points.

Flavia Saraiva of Brazil took the bronze behind Nemour and Zhang.

In the men’s competition, Artur Davtyan of Armenia stuck both of his landings in the vault final to win his second world gold on his best event. The 34-year-old, a two-time Olympic medalist on vault, also grabbed the gold at the 2022 world championships in Liverpool. Jake Jarman of Britain added silver to go with the gold he won on vault last year.

Sebastian Sponevik gave Norway its first world championship medal by a gymnast — male or female — by taking the bronze.

Zou Jingyuan of China continued his dominance on parallel bars, where he may be the best ever. Zou’s 15.733 in the finals marked the highest score by any gymnast on any event during the week. It also gave him his third parallel bars gold at worlds, to go with gold at both the 2020 and 2024 Olympics. Illia Kovtun of Croatia was second, followed by Daniel Marinov of Russia.

Tang Chia-Hung of Taipei won the high bar final, his 14.966 just enough to finish ahead of Japanese star Shinnosuke Oka and Sergei Naidin of Russia.

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