American Ashley Postell won the balance beam event while her compatriot Samantha Sheehan took first place in the floor exercise. China's Li Xiaopeng won two men's events in the semifinals at the 36th World Gymnastics Cham-pionships.
Postell and defending European champion Lyudmila Eyova of Russia both received 9.612 points for their performances on the beam, but the 16-year-old American won first place on the basis of tiebreakers. Sydney Olympic all-around champion Svetlana Khorkina of Russia finished third.
PHOTO: AP
China's Nan Zhang, who had qualified for the beam semifinal with the highest score, fell off the apparatus twice and did not make it to the final.
Postell also reached the final in vault, placing fourth in the semis.
``My goal was to reach a final at my first world championships and I accomplished it on both of my events,'' Postell said. ``It would be nice to win two medals but I would be glad even with one.''
The highest score in the vault event -- 9.350 points -- went to the runner-up in last year's worlds, Oxana Chusovitina of Uzbekistan, a 27-year-old mother of two.
Russia's Natalia Ziganshina and Ioana Petrovschi of Romania finished second and third.
In floor performance, American Samantha Sheehan and Daniele Hypolito of Brazil, last year's world championship runner-up, both received 9.450 points, but Sheehan was placed first based on tiebreakers. Spain's Elena Gomez was third.
First in the uneven bars was Khorkina, whose score of 9.762 points was the highest of the day in the women's competition. American Courtney Kupets was second with 9.550 points.
``Though I also qualified in second place in the first round, this high mark has taken me by surprise. I have completely redone my routine since last summer and now the judges are beginning to give it the high marks it probably deserves,'' Kupets said.
Third on the uneven bars was 2001 world finalist Eyova.
In the men's events, Olympic parallel bars champion Li Xiaopeng, 21, won both the vault and the parallel bars events.
On parallel bars, he received 9.587 points to finish ahead of Andreu Vivo of Spain and European champion Mitja Petkovsek of Slovenia.
Sean Townsend of the United Sates finished ninth after a tiebreaker calculation and will not be able to defend his title.
``I'm very disappointed. I missed my dismount,'' Townsend said.
In vault, Xiao-Peng Li and Poland's Leszek Blanik both scored 9.718 points to finish ahead of Wei Yang of China. Defending world champion Marian Dragulescu of Romania finished fourth.
In the floor event, defending world champion Marian Dragulescu of Romania scored 9.712 points to win the semifinal ahead of Spain's Gervasio Deferr and Wei Yang of China.
US gymnast Paul Hamm received a higher mark than in the first qualifying session and finished fourth.
On the pommel horse, Olympic, world and European champion Marius Urzica scored 9.750 points to win the semifinal. He was followed by Xiao Qin of China, with Eric Casimir of France on third place.
``I think my exercise was good. I made smaller mistakes but my feeling is that everything will be all right in the final tomorrow,'' Urzica said.
On the rings, Jovtchev edged out the defending Olympic champion, Hungary's Szilveszter Csollany, and Andrea Coppolino of Italy.
``I think I'm in excellent form and I'm confident I will win in the final on Saturday [yesterday],'' Jovtchev said.
On the high bar, Isao Yoneda of Japan scored 9.687 points to finish ahead of defending world and European champion Vlasios Maras of Greece and Paul Hamm of the US.
``I still think I can win the high bar title,'' Hamm said.
His confident stance was confirmed by Hamm's coach, Stacy Maloney, who added that Hamm has ``one of the riskiest routines. He needs to be a little clearer and stick the dismount.''
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