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World of Sport

16th Aug 2016

USA star Simone Biles’ costly error on beam sees her miss out on gold

Turns out she is human after all

Ben Kiely

It really goes to show how dominant Simone Biles is when it’s news that she hasn’t won a gold medal.

Going into Monday, the American artistic gymnastics phenom had won three golds in as many events at the Rio games. However, her dreams of taking a clean sweep in this year’s Olympics ended because of a costly error on the beam.

Biles had been the odds on favourite to claim gold in the event, but stumbled after a front somersault and was forced to grab the beam with both hands to stop herself from falling.

Dutch gymnast Sanne Wevers was up directly after Biles and she tactically changed her routine in order to secure the gold medal.

Her original plan was to try a very difficult routine, but after seeing Biles’ mistake, she cleverly adjusted her D-score from 7.0 down to 6.6 and executed her safer routine brilliantly.

Wevers’ final score of 15.466 was enough to win the event while USA’s Laurie Hernandez took the silver medal with 15.333. Despite her error, Biles’ score of 14.733 was still enough to secure a bronze medal.

On the latest episode of the GAA Hour Hurling Show Wooly and the lads reflect on a monumental weekend of action. Listen below or subscribe here on iTunes.