Vladislava Urazova of ROC competes in the balance beam of the artistic gymnastics women's team final at Tokyo 2020 on July 27, 2021. (Xinhua/Cheng Min)
The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) won the women's gymnastics team gold medal at Tokyo 2020, followed by the United States and Britain.
TOKYO, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) team won the women's gymnastics team title at the Tokyo Olympics here on Tuesday, upsetting two-time defending champions the USA who were without ace Simone Biles due to "a medical issue."
The ROC squad, composed of Liliia Akhaimova, Viktoriia Listunova, Angelina Melnikova, Vladislava Urazova, won gold with a total score of 169.528 points, adding to their men's team title.
The USA placed second 3.432 points behind, and Britain settled for bronze in 164.096 points.
The ROC team led the whole competition for the night, dominating in subdivisions of vault, uneven bars and floor exercise.
Angelina Melnikova of ROC competes in the uneven bars. (Xinhua/Wang Lili)
They started in rotation one with an edge of 1.067 points to their USA contenders, scoring an unparalleled 43.799 points in vault, as Liliia Akhaimova took a high of 14.733 points.
The ROC squad continued to extend their advantage on uneven bars, trailed by the USA with 2.500 points. Although the ROC team suffered two falls in the balance beam by Vladislava Urazova and Angelina Melnikova, they managed to finish a high total of 41.498 in floor exercise, securing a gold medal.
Biles sat out the competition after she stumbled and took a big step forward on landing in vault in rotation one, finishing her routine with only 13.766 points.
Jordan Chiles of the United States competes in the balance beam. (Xinhua/Cheng Min)
The USA squad managed to narrow their gap to a mere 0.8 point after balance beam in rotation three, but due to a major error of falling out of bound by Jordan Chiles in floor exercise which cost them a 0.6 penalty, the USA gymnasts received the lowest team score in the subdivision among eight competing teams, which denied them the chance for a gold.
Britain trailed at 2.000 points behind the USA to win a bronze. Though the team took a relatively low score in balance beam, their performances in other apparatus led them to surpass Italy by a narrow margin of 0.458.
