September 11, 2007	Tuesday	Sha'aban 28, 1428

STUTTGART (Germany), Sept 10: Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin picked up two more golds for the United States on Sunday, while Chinese gymnasts faltered on the final day of the world championships.

As the American duo helped the .. to bury memories of their 2006 nightmare, when they went home without a gold from Aarhus, Germany’s Fabian Hambuechen brought the cheering home crowd to their feet.

The teenager struck gold with his slick routine on the horizontal bar.

Slovenian Mitja Petkovsek and South Korean Kim Dae-eun shared the parallel bars title and Leszek Blanik of Poland completed the list of winners with an explosive performance on the vault.

China started the day looking to equal last year’s record tally of eight golds but those hopes vanished when all-round champion Yang Wei wobbled on his way to a handstand on the parallel bars and Cheng Fei stumbled out of the area on the floor exercise.With the pair unable to retain their titles, Li Shanshan was the only Chinese athlete to win a medal on Sunday by picking up a silver on the balance beam.

It left next year’s Olympic hosts to go home with five golds and the knowledge that in most of the women’s events they were outclassed by the United States.

Liukin’s deft jumps and graceful moves earned her a gold on the balance beam with a score of 16.025 points that beat joint silver medallists Steliana Nistor of Romania and China’s Li by 0.125.

All-round champion Johnson recovered from two falls in the balance beam final to tumble her way to the floor exercise gold medal, her third success of the championships.

Although the 15-year-old’s routine lacked some of the sparkle of her earlier efforts, her 15.250 points were good enough to beat team mate Alicia Sacramone by 0.025. France’s Cassy Vericel claimed the bronze.

Johnson helped the United States to bag four golds, including the women’s team title.—Reuters