Simone Biles in action on the balancing beam.

AFP/Glasgow

US star Simone Biles defended her floor title to claim an all-time record tenth women’s gold at the world gymnastics championships with an amazing acrobatic display yesterday.
It was the fourth gold for the 18-year-old in Glasgow after a record third straight women’s all-around title and her success on the team event and beam to become the most-titled woman gymnast in history.
She overtakes Russia’s Svetlana Khorkina, Romania’s Gina Gogean and former Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina, who all won nine world gold medals.
Khorkina remains top for the most medals, having won 20 between 1994 and 2003, with Gogean taking 15 from 1993 to 1997 and Latynina 14 between 1954 and 1966.
In just her third senior season Biles has never competed at an Olympics.
She has now won 14 world medals, and the only title missing from her collection is the vault on which she took bronze on Saturday.
The tiny American finished her world championships in style on the floor where she has a gymnastic move named after her—the “Biles” double layout with ½ turn—scoring 15.800 to take gold ahead of Russia’s Kseniia Afanseva  (15.100) and fellow American Margaret Nichols (15.100).
Earlier she defended her beam title scoring 15.358 to finish a 1.025 margin on Sanne Wevers of the Netherlands (14.33) with Germany’s Pauline Schaefer winning bronze (14.133) on the final day at Glasgow’s Hydro Arena.
She delivered an acrobatic performance on the apparatus on which she nearly fell on her way to all-around gold, but made no mistake this time, landing solidly with a double somersault.