ANTWERP, Belgium, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- The United States clinched the seventh straight women's team gold in FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships here on Wednesday in Antwerp, while China claimed the fourth place.
The U.S. team of Simone Biles, Skye Blakely, Shilese Jones and Leanne Wong accumulated a total of 167.729 points to win by 2.199 over runners-up Brazil.
France's Marine Boyer, Lorette Charpy, Coline Devillard, Melanie de Jesus dos Santos, and Morgane Ossisek-Reimer rose from seventh in qualification to take a surprise bronze medal with 164.064.
Biles, back at the World Championships for the first time since 2019, landed a Cheng vault for 14.800 and contributed 14.466 on uneven bars and a team high 14.300 on balance beam.
The 26-year-old's best was on floor exercise, where she earned 15.166, the highest score of the night, putting U.S. in front. The team gold is Biles's 20th world title and 26th world championship medal and gives her a total of 33 world and Olympic medals.
China was second behind the leading United States before the last rotation where Brazil and France overtook China to claim the medals.
China showed the dominant power in uneven bars (43.032 points and the second ranking) and balance beam (41.732 points and top ranking), but collected the least points (39.099) in vault with the lowest difficulty points among the teams in the final.
The competition will continue with the men's all-around final on Thursday. ■
