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Biles wins second gold in US one-two

August 12, 2016

Just 48 hours after winning her first gold in the team event, gymnastics superstar Simone Biles has added another to her Rio 2016 collection.

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Rio 2016 Turnen USA Simone Biles
Image: Getty Images/A. Livesey

Gymnastics sensation Simone Biles clinched her second gold medal of the Rio Olympics on Thursday, delivering a one-two finish for the United States in the all-around competition together with Alexandra Raisman.

The win makes the US the first country ever to claim four consecutive golds in the event, after also winning in 2004, 2008 and 2012. The Soviet Union still holds the record for most titles in the event with six gold medals.

Biles finished with a total of 62.198 points, followed by Raisman with 60.098 points. Russia's Aliya Mustafina took bronze with a total of 58.665 points.

Biles, 19, is competing in her first Games, but has won a record 10 gold medals at world championships and is already being touted by some as the greatest female gymnast ever and a top star in Rio. She dominated Thursday's competition from the start, by scoring 15.866 points on the vault with a so-called Amanar - one of the most difficult vaults to execute.

She yielded the lead only briefly to Russia's Aliya Mustafina in the second round of the competition, after scoring 14.966 points on the uneven bars, considered her weakest event. She took the highest score in all of the other competitions.

Home favourite Jade Barbosa of Brazil had to bow out of the competition after hurting her foot during her floor routine. Compatriot Rebecca Andrade, cheered on by a roaring crowd in the Olympic Arena, came in eleventh.

mds/rd (dpa)