Tweddle gives the home crowd what it wanted: a gold medal on floor exercise

Tweddle delights home crowd with gold medal

LONDON — Beth Tweddle gave the home crowd what it wanted: a gold medal.

Tweddle, Britain’s most famous — and favorite — gymnast, won the title on floor exercise Sunday. It’s the second medal at worlds for Britain, which is emerging as a gymnastics powerhouse just in time for the 2012 London Olympics. It was also Tweddle’s second world title. She won gold on uneven bars in 2006.

Earlier Sunday, China picked up its fourth and fifth titles at these world championships. Wang Guanyin won gold on parallel bars and Deng Linlin took the title on balance beam. Marian Dragulescu won his fourth title on vault, the second gold medal in as many days for the Romanian.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

LONDON (AP) — Wang Guanyin extended China’s winning streak at the world gymnastics championships, taking the gold on the parallel bars.

Wang edged teammate Feng Zhe to give China its fifth gold medal at this worlds. Kazuhito Tanaka of Japan won the bronze medal.

China dominated the Beijing Olympics, winning both team titles and seven other gold medals. Despite retooling its team, China has done more of the same here. Earlier Sunday, Deng Linlin won gold on balance beam; China won three of the five individual titles Saturday.

Earlier Sunday, Marian Dragulescu won his fourth title on vault. It was the second gold medal in as many days for the Romanian, who retired for about eight months after the Beijing Olympics because of chronic back and neck problems.