Gymnast Biles comes up big for golden U.S.; Canada fourth

DOHA, QATAR The juggernaut led by Simone Biles keeps right on rolling, kidney stone or no kidney stone.

The U.S. women’s gymnastics team cruised to a gold medal at the world gymnastics championships on Tuesday, extending a run of dominance that only seems to be picking up momentum.

The Americans won the world championship by a record 8.766 points.

“It shows how strong the group of girls are and how strong Team USA is,” Biles said after collecting the 15th world championship medal of her career despite dealing with pain from a kidney stone.

“I feel like, anything you guys throw at us, we’ll try and work even harder to improve ourselves and our scores for the team.”

The U.S. put up a total of 171.629 points to win its fourth straight world title and secure a spot at the 2020 Olympics.

Silver medallist Russia and bronze medallist China also locked up Olympic berths by reaching the podium.

Canada backed its surprising fourth in qualifying to finish a close fourth behind the Chinese.

The Canadian team, composed of Ellie Black of Halifax, Sophie Marois of Ile Bizard, Que., Brooklyn Moors of Cambridge, Ont., Shallon Olsen of Surrey, B.C., and Ana Padurariu of Whitby, Ont., scored a total of 161.644 over the four apparatus.

“I’m so proud of the girls today,” Black said.

“They went out and did their jobs. We had a few mistakes, but there were so many positives, so many good parts of the day.

“We ended up making history, coming fourth as a team in team finals, our best-ever result, and we couldn’t be more happy with that.

“I think we represented Canada just the way we like to: with a smile, and aggression, and never giving up.”