Sunisa Lee of the United States competes in the floor exercise competition of the artistic gymnastics women's all-around final at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, July 29, 2021. (Xinhua/Wang Lili)
TOKYO, July 29 (Xinhua) -- U.S. gymnast Sunisa Lee rallied to take the women's all-around title at the Tokyo Olympics on Thursday.
The 18-year-old won gold with 57.433 points, followed by Brazil's Rebeca Andrade in 57.298 points. The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC)'s Angelina Melnikova settled for bronze with 57.199 points.
Thanks to an excellent performance on the uneven bars, Lee was able to narrow her gap with Andrade and placed second in rotation two by a close margin of 0.066 points to the Brazilian gymnast.
Though she was unstable on the balance beam, Lee led the competition after rotation three, trailing by Andrade at 0.101 points. Her score of 13.700 in floor exercise held off a strong challenge from Andrade, as the latter scored 13.666 points but needed 13.802 for a gold.
Andrade led the first rotation with a 15.300 high on the vault despite a 0.1 penalty for stepping out of bounds, but lost her edge in uneven bars and balance beam after rotation three.
In the last rotation, Andrade stepped out of bounds in the floor exercise twice, leading to a 0.4 penalty which denied her the chance for a gold.
Melnikova was 0.099 points behind Andrade and took the bronze.
U.S. star gymnast Simone Biles announced her withdrawal from the all-around final on Wednesday, after she sat out the team final on Tuesday.
China's Tang Xijing and Lu Yufei finished seventh and 18th respectively in the women's all-around. Enditem
