Brazil's Rebeca Andrade steals spotlight at gymnastics worlds, winning 2 medals

Rebeca Andrade of Brazil added a world title to her Tokyo Olympic gold medal in vault and won a silver medal in uneven bars on Saturday at the gymnastics world championships in Kitakyushu, Japan.

Andrade scored 15.133 points on her first vault and 14.800 on her second effort, a double-twisting Yurchenko, for a 14.966 average.

Asia D'Amato of Italy took silver with 14.083 points while all-around champion Angelina Melnikova of Russia was third with 13.966.

Andrade's vault title is just the second gold for a Brazilian woman and the first since Daiane Dos Santos won floor at the 2003 worlds.

Andrade then added a silver medal by finishing second to China's Wei Xiaoyuan in the uneven bars.

Andrade scored 14.633 points to become the first Brazilian to medal in the event at the world championships.

Wei received 14.733 points while her compatriot Luo Rui had the same score as Andrade but lost the tie break and finished third.

1st-ever pommel horse gold for U.S.

Andrade elected not to compete in Thursday's all-around event, citing injury concerns. The 22-year-old suffered ACL tears between 2015 and 2019.

"Many people didn't believe in me when I got injured," Andrade was quoted by Olympics.com. "Today, I'm here to show the world that everything is possible if you chase what you really want. You can do it if you have people who believe in you."

In other events, Stephen Nedoroscik won the first-ever pommel horse gold for the United States with 15.266 points. Weng Hao of China and Kaya Kazuma of Japan shared the silver with 14.900.

"I'm kind of in shock now," Nedoroscik said. "I'm so proud of what I did, all the odds were against me coming here. I've always thought a gold medal would be possible for me. I've always had confidence in myself."

A day after taking the all-round gold medal, Zhang Boheng of China withdrew from Saturday's apparatus finals as did silver medallist Daiki Hashimoto of Japan.

Hashimoto, the all-around Olympic gold medalist, is resting a sore wrist and back but plans to participate Sunday in the parallel bars and horizontal bar final, according to the Japanese Gymnastics Federation.

Nicola Bartolini of Italy won the gold medal in the men's floor exercise with 14.800 points. Kazuki Minami of Japan, who replaced Hashimoto, was second with 14.766 while Emil Soravuo of Finland took bronze with 14.700.

China also claimed gold in the men's rings final with Lan Xingyu receiving 15.200 points. Italy's Marco Lodadio was second with 14.866 followed by compatriot Salvatore Maresca with 14.833.