Milka Gehani finishes 62nd in artistic gymnastics
Out of 85 gymnasts, only 75 were seen in action. Of the balance, four withdrew while the balance did not compete.
Gehani had breaks for vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor breaks of 13.366, 10.866, 11.266 and 10.300 respectively to have a grand total of 45.798 after the preliminaries after which 24 (maximum of two from a country) qualified for the final round.
In contrast to Gehani, the first and second placed both from the US, had 57.731 and 57.166 respectively.
But Simone Biles, who was eying to win up to six medals at the Tokyo Olympics, got off to a rocky start.
The four-time Olympic winner started her day with uncharacteristic errors on floor and vault in the first two rotations of today’s qualifying competition, creating potential for an upset.
However, errors weren’t just from Biles as the US women failed to post the top score of the day for the first time at a World Championships or Olympics since 2010.
In her failure, instead, it was ROC led by 2019 world all-around Bronze Medallist Angelina Melnikova that earned the top score.
They had a total of 171.629 to USA’s 170.562. China was third at 166.863.
Biles, despite her errors, earned a total score of 57.731. Team USA’s Suni Lee is currently second at 57.166, followed by Melnikova at 57.132.
The US lasses got off to a less than stellar start as Grace McCallum couldn’t control her opening tumbling pass, a double-double, and she went out of bounds.
She earned just a 13.466. Lee followed, coming up short on her final pass for even lower, a 13.433.
Jordan Chiles’ seemingly clean routine scored just 13.566. Biles salvaged the rotation for the US team, but even here 14.133 was error-filled.
Biles flew off the floor on her third tumbling pass, coming all the outside the floor exercise with both feet.
The US team’s mistakes continued with Lee landing short on her double-twisting Yurchenko. Biles was nearly sideways on her first vault, stepping outside the lines for a .300 neutral deduction.
She rebounded with her second vault to earn an average score of 15.166 and a spot in the vault.