The American women's gymnastics team produced their best ever performance in a world championships yesterday, winning nine out of 15 medals.
Nastia Liukin, Chellsie Memmel and Alicia Sacramone took the top two spots in the balance beam and floor exercise finals on Sunday, adding four medals to the Americans' gold-silver finishes in the all-around and uneven bars finals, and bronze medal finish on vault.
"I can't find any other word, it was just very spectacular," said former Soviet Olympian Valeri Liukin, the father and coach of Nastia Liukin. "It's amazing."
PHOTO: AFP
"We are a very strong unit right now, and this is a real team. That's what makes us strong, we help each other," he said.
Liukin, 16, took the gold medal on the balance beam final, showcasing her agility and grace on the 10cm wide apparatus with a 9.612 out of 10.
She dazzled the audience with elegant turns and leaps, and whipped off backflips as easily as if she were on solid ground.
"I feel great," she said after her routine. "I knew I could pull it off."
Memmel took silver with 9.512 on an athletic beam routine that featured a rock-solid performance of her signature move, a piked forward somersault with a 180-degree turn.
Her father and coach, Andrew Memmel, watched from the sidelines and pumped his arms as the 17-year-old -- who edged Liukin for the all-around title by just 1-1000th of a point on Friday -- hit each of her elements.
Romania's Catalina Ponor -- the Olympic gold medalist on beam -- took bronze with 9.500.
In addition to her bronze gold medal on vault, 17-year-old Alicia Sacramone took gold on the floor exercise with 9.612 out of 10.
Cheered on by Liukin, Sacramone completed a jazzy floor routine with a near-flawless triple twist.
Liukin wobbled on some of her leaps and dance elements to finish second with 9.425 out of 9.9. The Netherlands' Suzanne Harmes won bronze with 9.212 out of 10.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with