Uchimura, Mustafina take all-around titles at gymnastic worlds

Japan's Kohei Uchimura overcame a shoulder injury to retain his all-around title Friday, while Russian newcomer Aliya Mustafina won the women's event for her second gold at the world gymnastics championships in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Uchimura gave a commanding performance with six consistently good scores to win the title with 92.331 points for a huge 2.283 margin over silver medallist Philipp Boy of Germany. Jonathan Horton of the United States was 2.467 behind for bronze.

The women's all-around saw the emergence of 16-year-old Mustafina, who won the individual event with aplomb after leading Russia to the team title earlier in the week. She is going for four more medals in the apparatus finals over the weekend.

Applauding her rivals and dismissing intense pressure with one star performance after another, Mustafina was oblivious to the tension that afflicted other challengers.

"No pressure," she said in comments as simple as her performance was complex.

The teenager could end up with six golds, a prospect that surely must daunt her. "Normal, like always," she said.

But it was not a "normal" day for Russia, which had not won a medal in the last world championships or Olympics. It now leads with two golds, courtesy of Mustafina.

She finished with 61.023, beating China's Jiang Yuyan by 1.034. American Rebecca Bross took bronze with 58.966.

Disappointing time for U.S.

After winning gold and silver at the last world championships and Olympics, it was a disappointing night for the United States, with last year's runner up Rebecca Bross falling off the beam and Alexandra Reisman doing likewise on the uneven bar.

"I tried my hardest to stay on, but it didn't work out too well," said Bross, who was able to laugh about it after recovering for bronze with a good floor exercise.

"Obviously I am a bit disappointed, not because it is a bronze medal but because I had a mistake."

Moscovite student Mustafina has wowed the crowds all week with a rare combination of power, elevation and elegance and combined all of her talent with amazing grace in the floor exercise to wrap up her first major individual title.

Mustafina led from start to finish, first outvaulting her top rivals before extending her lead on the uneven bars. She went first on the beam and nailed all of her jumps.

The 21-year-old Uchimura has already led Japan to the team silver medal behind China on Thursday. He has also qualified for two apparatus finals this weekend.

"The first thing I want now is rest," he said after 11 apparatus performances in just over 24 hours.

Even after Friday's stunning performance, Uchimura did little more than wave and smile at the rapturous crowd of 7,000 at the Ahoy Arena, where the Japanese flags were flying high.

Smooth grace

Uchimura used the same smooth grace that gave him all-around silver at the Beijing Olympics and gold at the world championships in London last year. Now, he proved even pain and injury can't stop him in the competition that crowns the world's greatest gymnast.

"It is the adrenaline," he said through a translator.

He came to Rotterdam with an inflamed shoulder and said the pain was getting progressively worse. Still, once he focused on the competition, there was no room for distraction.

"A bum shoulder, no shoulder, no arms. The guy is ridiculous. Uchimura -- he is a machine," bronze medallist Horton said.

In Uchimura's shadow, Boy took over the role of the absent Fabian Hambuechen to earn a surprise silver with clean routines throughout. Horton was strong for most of the night but a few steps because of too much forward momentum on his landing in the vault may have cost him silver.

"It is 100 per cent a dream," Boy said. "After the team bronze [with Germany] on Thursday. Now the silver ... It is absolute madness."

Uchimura started to dominate from the opening floor event, flying higher and landing steadier and softer than anybody else to open up a huge half-point margin.

If he was going to show some weakness, it was going to be on the third event, the rings. Team officials even added more skin-coloured tape to his left shoulder, knowing it was the toughest test of his injury.

"I felt some tightness after the horse and they took care of that," he said.

He carried on with another near-flawless performance, swinging freely before hanging dead-still in a skip of a beat. When he nailed his landing, he had yet again increased his lead over everyone else in the top group -- except Horton, who got the best ring marks.

At the halfway point, Uchimura had made the competition his to lose. At 21, he was the youngest of the top performers.

He lined up his vault like a shooter looking for his aim and executed with a precision and height that have become his trademarks. By that time, the race for gold was as good as over.