ROTTERDAM, Netherlands: Veterans Alicia Sacramone and Beth Tweddle outshone their teenage rivals as they both claimed their third world golds at the World Gymnastics Championships here Saturday. Sacramone, 22, took the women's vault title and Tweddle, 25, the uneven bars gold as newly-crowned all-around and team champion Aliya Mustafina of Russia had to settle for silver on both apparatus. Sacramone showed that you can make a winning comeback from retirement as she completed her collection of world vault medals, adding to her silver in 2006 and bronze in 2005 and 2007. She was also world team champion in 200nd on the floor in 2005. Favorite Mustafina looked on her way to gold as the 16-year-old pulled out a huge first vault, scoring 15.733. But she achieved an average of 15.066 after having her second attempt downgraded. “After her first vault I thought ‘I like silver',” said Sacramone, who quit gymnastics after the Beijing Olympics because she blamed herself for mistakes which led to her team losing the gold to China. “After having had so many injuries and being disheartened after the Olympics it's nice to come back and get the reward for my work,” she said. “I went one better than I planned. I've been doing these vaults for years now. It's just like a walk in the park. “This gives me confidence toing into tomorrow (floor).” Tweddle, meanwhile, stepped up after world and Olympic champion He Kexin, 18, and Chinese teammate Huang Qiushuang, 18, crashed off the uneven bars. The gymnast from Cheshire gave a demonstration in acrobatics which drew gasps and applause from the crowd at the Ahoy Arena. “It was theirs to lose,” said Tweddle of her Chinese rivals. “I heard them bang onto the mat. It's hard to focus when the top two qualifiers have gone down, but I just tried to do what I do in training.” She took the title by a margin of 0.133 on Mustafina with 17-year-old American Rebecca Bross taking bronze. A tearful He finsished seventh in the eight-woman final. – Agence France
