Biles pulls off Yurchenko's double pike vault, to be named after her

AFP

American gymnast Simone Biles became the first woman to do the Yurchenko double pike at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships on Sunday, with the vault now to be named after her.

The Yurchenko double pike is the most difficult jump in the women's scoring code and was rated at 6.4 points by the technical committee in anticipation of it being performed.

The 26-year-old athlete scored 15.266 with a 58.865 total in the all-around, securing the vault to be named Biles II after a different original jump was named after her in 2018.

With 25 world medals, the most of any gymnast in history, and seven Olympic medals, the oldest American woman to compete at the worlds now has five skills named after her, two on the floor exercise, two on vault, and one on the balance beam.

The US women's team finished their qualifying subdivision at the top of the table and will go for team gold on Wednesday in Antwerp.

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