Jittery start to a historic quest

Biles goes off the mat in floor to qualify 2nd, then falters on beam to lie in sixth place

TOKYO: American gymnastics superstar Simone Biles got off to a shaky start in her quest for five gold medals and Olympic history in Tokyo on Sunday. Biles kept the wheels on her bid to level Soviet great Larisa Latynina’s record of nine gymnastics gold medals but her qualifying shows were peppered with rare imperfections. On the floor, Biles overrotated after one series of mesmerising tumbles and went off the mat, drawing a gasp from at least one onlooker in the neardeserted Ariake Centre.

She rolled her eyes after another unsteady landing over on the vault, and her performance director Tom Forster expressed disbelief after an untidy end to her beam routine.

“Simone took three big steps on the beam dismount, I’ve never seen her do that before,” said Forster. Biles qualified top in the all-around and vault, and was second on the floor, with the USA occupying the same position behind the Russians for Tuesday’s team final.

But in the beam standings she paid for her flawed ending to lie sixth of the eight progressing.

Biles also booked a place for the uneven bars final, though, which the 19-time world champion missed at Rio 2016, as the eighth qualifier. While there were many moments of dazzling Biles brilliance, Forster was thankful this was only qualifying. “We’re going to be okay... this is not the finals, this is getting into the finals, this might be a great awakening for us,” he said. He said there was work to do. “Mostly fixing steps on the floor. Staying in bounds would help,” he added, putting the lapses down to “nerves”.

Biles later chose to focus on the USA’S team title defence rather than any personal ambitions of adding to all the precious metal on her sideboard.

“I feel we did a pretty good job. Obviously there are little things we need to work on, so we’ll go back and practise and work on that, just so we can do our best performance at team finals, because that’s what matters.”

BILES LATER CHOSE TO FOCUS ON THE USA’S TEAM TITLE DEFENCE RATHER THAN ANY PERSONAL AMBITIONS OF ADDING TO ALL THE PRECIOUS METAL ON HER SIDEBOARD