The 24-year-old from Liverpool bounced back from her failure to reach the final in her strongest event on the uneven bars with a superb display in the floor exercise to win her second world title.

 

After suffering a fall in qualifying on the uneven bars, which she won in 2006, Tweddle performed a near-faultless routine to triumph on the floor at the O2 Arena.
 

Tweddle said: "Winning the bars in 2006 was pretty good, but with it being on home ground and not on my signature piece, I think this probably is the top [achievement].

 

My mum, my dad, my house-mate, my gym friends, everyone is here, so at least afterwards I'll be able to celebrate with them."
 

The European champion was the first gymnast to take to the floor and showed no nerves as she posted a score of 14.650 in front of a packed house.
 

Her routine was the hardest in the competition and she watched on as her rivals were unable to surpass her tally.
 

There was a long delay following an injury to Colombian Jessica Gil Ortiz, who left the arena on a stretcher after landing on her neck, but Australian Lauren Mitchell stayed focused to score 14.550 and claim her second silver of the day after coming second on the beam.
 

China's Sui Lu secured bronze with a score of 14.300.
 

Tweddle, who had almost fallen in Wednesday's qualification, was unsure if she had done enough to secure gold.
 

She said: "I was a bit disappointed with the actual score.

 

"That's why I was more nervous waiting.

 

"Normally you know what is a good score and what is not, but in this championships everything has been a bit different.
 

"Everyone expects me to medal on bars.

 

"To come out with a world title on floor, it shows that I'm not just a one-piece gymnast."

 

Tweddle's victory overshadowed another outstanding performance from China, who bagged three more gold medals.

 

With several new faces in the squad after last year's Beijing Olympics, China was still the biggest winner while Romania and the United States each grabbed two golds.

 

Triple Olympic champion Zou Kai (pictured) shocked the gymnastics worlds with a difficulty score of 7.5 points in the men's high bar, leaving all the other finalists off the pace.

 

The 21-year-old then clinched his first individual world champion title with a score of 16.150 points.

 

Zou said: "The Olympic gold medals are more impressive, but this world champion title is also important as it's the first time that I won an individual event at the World Championships."

 

Dutchman Epke Zonderland trailed behind Zou at 15.825 points and Igor Cassina of Italy took the bronze with 15.625 points.

 

Even though he was "very satisfied" with his performance in Saturday's floor final, Zou was 0.025 point behind winner Marian Dragulescu, as the 29-year-old Romanian veteran pleased the judges well to earn 15.700 points.

   

Dragulescu kept his amazing form in the men's vault today, claiming his second gold in 16.575 points, followed by his teammate Flavius Koczi and Russian Anton Golotsutskov in 16.337 and 16.287 points respectively.

 

World Championships debutant Wang Guanyin performed on the parallel bars as the first competitor among the eight finalists.

 

The 23-year-old said: "I didn't perform well.

 

"Almost every move was tight, because I was really nervous."

 

Wang said he thought as long as he could completed the whole set of movements, he was successful.

 

However, his score of 15.975 points was not beaten.

 

Wang said: "I have never thought about winning the gold medal. I still couldn't believe it."

 

Wang's teammate Feng Zhe took the silver in 15.775 points and Kazuhito Kanaka added a bronze for Japan with a result of 15.500 points.

 

Before Deng's victory, teenager Deng Linlin won the women's beam with "just normal performance".

 

Mitchell was 0.125 point behind to finish second in 14.875 points and Hong Ivana from the US was third in 14.550 points. 

 

 

Related stories

October 2009: Tweddle gold medal hopes take a tumble

October 2009: Exclusive - Tweddle can strike world gold, says Olympic champion