TOKYO: Gold medalist USA's Jade Carey poses during the podium ceremony of the artistic gymnastics women's floor exercise during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Ariake Gymnastics Centre in Tokyo yesterday. - AFP

TOKYO: American Jade Carey singled out Simone Biles' role in helping her to sweep her rivals off the floor for Olympic gold yesterday, 24 hours after trailing in a tearful last on the vault. As the second night of gymnastics apparatus finals got under way in Tokyo, confirmation filtered through that Biles will return to the Olympic arena for Tuesday's closing beam final. Ahead of her eagerly awaited comeback she was at the Ariake Gymnastics Centre to cheer on Carey, the 21-year-old from Arizona who tumbled her way to a score of 14.366 to take the title from Italian 30-year-old veteran Vanessa Ferrari.

For Carey, coached in Tokyo by her father Brian, this was rapid redemption after she stumbled on landing on her first vault on Sunday and cut a sorrowful figure after her second jump. She said: "Yesterday was very tough for me. I tripped, I guess, in my hurdle. For tonight, I just had to let that go and give it my all. Simone especially was helping me let it go and move on. She said, 'It happened, and you can't do anything about it.' She was like, 'Let's go out and kill floor', and that's what I did."

Carey, who succeeds Biles as Olympic champion, spoke of her pride at putting the vault nightmare behind her to produce "probably the best floor routine I've ever done in my life". There was a rare dead-heat for bronze between Japan's Mai Murakami and Angelina Melnikova, who led the Russians to team gold last week.

Ring-master Liu

Carey's heroics on the floor were followed by the men's rings final, won by an emotional Liu Yang, with You Hao completing a one-two for China. Eleftherios Petrounias, Greece's defending champion from the Rio Games, took the bronze. Liu, 26, who took team bronze at Rio 2016, secured China's first gymnastics title at the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Olympics. A former world champion on rings, Liu claimed gold with a total of 15.500 points, .200 clear of You.

Petrounias took third on 15.200 after a solid performance while Brazil's London 2012 champion Arthur Zanetti took last spot. Liu, explaining his tears, said: "I have been doing gymnastics for over 20 years, so I have a lot of emotions." The third gold medal on offer was claimed by South Korea's Shin Jea-hwan, who won the men's vault on a tiebreak from Russian Denis Abliazin. The pair both ended with 14.783 points, Shin taking the title after outscoring Abliazin on both his two jumps. "It feels like I am dreaming, it doesn't feel like it's real. I prepared for this competition for a long time," said Shin. In bronze came Armenia's Artur Davtyan.

The curtain comes down on the gymnastics action today with finals in the men's parallel bars and horizontal bar, and women's beam -- where all the focus will be on Biles. The American superstar's millions of social media followers, fans, teammates, coaches, family, even rivals will be thrilled at her decision to return to the Olympic fray.

The four-time Olympic champion, widely considered to have pushed the sport to new limits, pulled out of last week's opening team competition after one vault. She subsequently withdrew from the all-around final and three of the four apparatus finals -- the floor, vault and uneven bars. The 24-year-old, who before battle commenced was expected to be one of the headline acts of these Games, said she is struggling with the "twisties", a condition where gymnasts lose the ability to orientate themselves in mid-air. - AFP