Dominant USA surge to women's team gold

Win Olympic women's team gymnastics final to claim their first gold medal in the event since 1996 Atlanta Games

I / London August 01, 2012, 10:59 IST

The United States won the Olympic women's team gymnastics final to claim their first gold medal in the event since the 'Magnificent Seven' triumphed at the 1996 Atlanta Games.

Russia, runners-up to the US at last year's World Championships, finished second yesterday, with European champions Romania pipping 2008 Olympic champions China to the bronze medal.

The United States had dominated in qualifying on Sunday but unlike their male counterparts, who finished a disappointing fifth in Monday's men's final, they reproduced the same high performance level when it mattered.

"We didn't really pay too much attention to the score," said US team member Jordyn Wieber, the reigning world champion.

"We just knew we had a really important job to do and that we just had to do what we'd been practising.

After the floor, we were just really happy that we'd performed so well."

Victory was particularly sweet for Wieber, who lost out on a place in the individual all-around final to team-mate Alexandra Raisman but played a key role in Tuesday's triumph.

The Americans' winning score of 183.596 points was even more handsome than their qualifying tally and gave them a comfortable advantage of 5.066 points over the Russians, some of whom were reduced to tears.

"At the beginning they were tears of disappointment, but the second tears were tears of joy (at winning the silver medal)," explained Russia's Aliya Mustafina, the 2010 world champion.

Great Britain were unable to repeat the success the bronze medal-winning men's team enjoyed on Monday and finished in sixth place behind Canada, with Italy seventh and Japan last.

The US team had set the tone in both podium training and qualifying with assured performances on the vault, and once again they asserted their authority with three superb Amanar vaults in the first rotation.