Pease and Esponda Go 1-2 on Floor as US End Worlds With Eight Medals

Claire Pease won the floor exercise gold medal at the World Gymnastics Championships in Rotterdam on Sunday, and Reese Esponda finished second, closing the championships with an American one-two on the last event of the women's programme.

Pease, 17, was the eighth and final gymnast to compete in the final. She scored 13.866 points. Esponda, also 17 and also competing at her first world championships, scored 13.566 after posting the best floor score in qualifying last week, NBC Sports and USA Today reported.

"I really controlled my power and settled into the podium landings," Pease said after the final, in remarks reported by NBC Sports.

"I'm just really proud of my fight," Esponda said. "I worked really hard. In team final, I didn't have my best routine, so I put my best foot forward, and I was trying to work on all my landings, and I think I did a lot better today."

Three American winners in three days

Pease is the youngest American to win an individual world title since Morgan Hurd won the all-around in 2017, and the first American to win individual gold at her first world championships since Hurd, NBC Sports reported. She also won silver medals in the team event and on vault in Rotterdam.

Her win made it three straight days with an American individual world champion. Skye Blakely won the all-around on Friday, scoring 55.733, and Frederick Richard won the men's floor exercise title on Saturday. The last time three different American gymnasts won individual world titles at one championships was 2011, when Jordyn Wieber, McKayla Maroney and Danell Leyva did it, according to NBC Sports.

The full medal count

The United States finished the championships with eight medals, the most of any country, and tied China for the most gold medals with three, NBC Sports reported. The American women won seven of those medals: two golds, two silvers and two bronzes in the individual finals, plus the team silver, USA Today reported.

Blakely added a sixth place finish in the balance beam final on Sunday to close her week with four medals: all-around gold, team silver, and bronze medals on vault and uneven bars, the University of Florida reported. She is the fourth American woman to win at least four medals at a single world championships, after Simone Biles, Nastia Liukin and Rebecca Bross, and the ninth American woman to win a world all-around title. She is also the first gymnast to compete in NCAA gymnastics and win a world all-around championship in the same calendar year.

The one disappointment for the Americans came in the team final, where China beat them and ended a long run of United States team titles. The American women took silver.

"I feel like we've done a very good job. I really couldn't have asked for more from them," said Chellsie Memmel, the technical lead for the US women, in remarks reported by USA Today. "They went out and gave it their all every single time they were on the floor, and we've got quite a few medals that we're going home with."

In the men's high bar final on Sunday, Tang Chia-hung of Taiwan won gold with 14.966, ahead of Shinnosuke Oka of Japan. Sergei Nadin of Russia took bronze. No American competed in that final, USA Today reported.