WORLDS TURNED UPSIDE DOWN
Perhaps no one was more surprised than Canadian Shallon Olsen after twisting to a silver medal at the world gymnastics championships in Doha — and sharing a podium with the “literally amazing” Simone Biles.
DOHA, QATAR— Canada’s Shallon Olsen captured a silver medal on vault in the individual apparatus finals Friday at the world gymnastics championships.
Olsen, of Surrey, B.C., entered the competition having qualified in second position behind American star Simone Biles. Olsen laid down two more solid vaults to take silver with a total score of 14.516.
Biles captured her 13th world championship title with a total score of15.366. Alexa Moreno of Mexico earned bronze with a total score of 14.508.
“This is absolutely insane. I did not think I was going to come second behind Simone Biles, because she’s literally amazing,” said Olsen, who was the gold medallist on vault at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in April.
“I’m just really happy and ecstatic right now.”
Ellie Black of Halifax, who won a silver medal at last year’s world championships in the individual all-around competition, also laid down two solid vaults of a lesser difficulty value to finish the day in seventh position with a total score of 14.116.
The competition wraps up Saturday with Black and Ana Padurariu of Whitby competing in the beam finals, and Brooklyn Moors of Cambridge competing in the floor finals.
Biles, who won a record fourth world all-around title on Thursday, opted not to do her signature vault during the finals but still coasted to victory.
Her two-vault average of 15.366 was well clear of the 14.516 posted by Olsen and the 14.508 put up by Mexico’s Alexa Moreno.
Biles finished runner-up to Belgium’s Nina Derwael in the uneven bars final but still became the first American woman to win a world championship medal on all four events.
Biles’ score of 14.7 nudged her past Germany’s Elizabeth Seitz but wasn’t enough to top Derwael’s 15.2. Derwael’s gold was the first ever for Belgium at the world championships.
Men’s all-around champion Artur Dalaloyan of Russia added gold on floor exercise, his score of 14.900 allowing him to slip past Japan’s Kenzo Shirai. Carlos Edriel Yulo of the Philippines was third, just ahead of American Yul Moldauer.