Biles Grabs 2 Golds as 2023 World Championships Conclude

The 2023 World Championships concluded in Antwerp with Day 2 of Event Finals. 

Starting with the men’s vault final, Jake Jarman won the first medal at these World Championships for Great Britain and it was a golden performance (15.050 average), making Jarman the first British gymnast to win a world vault title. 

“I couldn’t be happier with how today went,” Jarman said. “I was super nervous going into this competition. I don’t know why. I kept telling myself, ‘Just enjoy it, just enjoy it, anything can happen,’ but I still got nervous. To be able to hold my nerves and be able to produce the vaults I did, I’m super proud.”

Khoi Young (USA) wound up with the silver after he kicked off the day by drilling both of his vaults for an average of 14.849. It was the perfect ending for Young, who leaves his very first World Championships with three medals (1 bronze and 2 silvers) – making him the most decorated U.S. male gymnast of these World Championships. 

“I’m so glad to be done,” Young said. “It was a lot of stress, but I’m absolutely happy with how I’ve done. I came in with not many expectations and came out with some medals so of course I’m happy.”

Nazar Chepurnyi (UKR) won the bronze (14.766). Reigning vault champ Artur Davtyan (ARM) knocked himself out of medal contention after nearly running into the table on his Dragulescu. 

In the beam final, Simone Biles grabbed her first gold medal of the day with a near flawless beam routine (14.8). Biles’ D-score was two tenths higher than she scored in Qualifications (6.5 D-score), giving her a sizable buffer over the rest of the field with the exception of Zhou Yaqin (CHN) who took the silver medal (14.700) with the same D-score. Rebeca Andrade (BRA) won the bronze medal (14.300). 

History was made in the parallel bars final with Lukas Dauser winning the first World gold medal of his career (15.400) and the first gold medal ever for Unified Germany! Shi Cong (CHN) grabbed the silver (15.066) and Sugimoto Kaito (JPN) claimed the bronze (15.000). 

Back where it all started 10 years ago, Biles concluded her sixth World Championships with the gold medal once again on floor (14.633); bringing her total World medal tally to 30 (23 of which are gold!) 

“I think it’s been an amazing experience,” Biles said. “I’m really proud of the work that I’ve put in to get here and the results are showing!”

Biles was joined on the podium by Andrade (14.500) and her teammate Flavia Saraiva (13.966), who grabbed the first individual World medal of her career and capped off a historic performance for the Brazilian team which included a team silver medal earlier in the week. 

“I am feeling really happy,” Saraiva said. “A lot of times I got into the floor final but I didn’t do my best routine and sometimes I was injured. This is my first individual World Championships medal. Every time you get a good result, you want more! I would like to say thank you to everybody in Brazil, for me it was a really nice atmosphere.”

Wrapping up the action in Antwerp, Hashimoto Daiki (JPN) won the first World gold medal of his career on high bar (15.233), wrapping up a dominant competition where he won three gold medals in total. Tin Srbic (CRO) won the silver medal after an inquiry raised his final score to a 14.700. Su Weide (CHN) won the bronze (14.500).

Individual Apparatus Qualifiers for the 2024 Paris Olympics

Women

Vault: Csenge Backsay (HUN) 
Bars: Ahtziri Sandoval (MEX)
Beam: Ana Perez (ESP)
Floor: Sarah Voss (GER)

Men

Pommel Horse: Rhys McClenaghan (IRL)
Rings: Eleftherios Petronunias (GRE)
Vault: Kevin Penev (BUL)
Parallel Bars: Noah Kuavita (BEL)
High Bar: Tin Srbic (CRO)

Photos by Ricardo Bufolin for Inside Gymnastics

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