STUTTGART, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- U.S. gymnast Anastasia Liukin won the gold medal of the women's beam on Sunday at the Stuttgart World Gymnastics Championships.
The 18-year-old veteran, who also helped the U.S. team defeat Chinese girls to take the team gold medal, scored 16.025 points.
Chinese Li Shanshan and Romanian Steliana Nistor won the silver medals with the same score of 15.900 points, while Athens Olympic champion Catalina Ponor from Romania finished fourth with 15.700 points.
Liukin's victory was partly due to the frequent falls by her competitors at Sunday's final.
Li Shanshan, who finished first during the qualifying round with a high score of 16.325 points, fell down from the beam.
Despite an ugly B-score of 8.70, the highest A-score of 7.3 points earned her the second place together with Nistor.
Liukin's teammate Johnson Shaw, who won the gold medal of the all-around two days ago, dropped from the beam twice in her action, relegating the newly-crowned champion to last place with 14.475 points.
