Algerian teen Kaylia Nemour conjured up a landmark Olympic gymnastics win for Africa and Carlos Yulo made it two golds in 24 hours on Sunday.
On the second day of the apparatus finals at Bercy, 17-year-old Arena Nemour produced “the performance of her life” to claim the uneven bars title and become the first African to win an Olympic gymnastics medal of any colour.
Yulo of the Philippines then shrugged off a sleepless night following his floor gold on Saturday to triumph on the vault.
And Liu Yang clinched China’s first men’s gymnastics gold of the 2024 Games, delivering a formidable display of strength and skill to retain the rings title he won in Tokyo.
French-born Nemour, 17, took the uneven bars title with a stunning high-flying acrobatic performance which went down well with the judges who awarded her 15.700 points.
That pushed China’s world champion Qiu Qiyuan into silver with American Sunisa Lee snatching bronze.
“I’m so shocked, it’s the dream of all my life. I can’t believe it has happened, I’m speechless,” said Nemour.
Lee said watching Nemour on bars “is like watching a feather”.
“She’s flying. It’s so light. It just looks so good and it’s so fast and so smooth,” said the American who has won team gold and two bronzes this week.
For Yulo, his fairytale Olympics continued the day after claiming the floor title for a piece of Philippines sporting history.
Prior to Yulo’s heroics in Paris, the Philippines had only ever won one gold medal at the Olympics.
He singlehandedly tripled that tally over one weekend with two stunning performances.
On the crest of a wave after Saturday’s floor title, the 24-year-old from Manila leapt to the top of the leaderboard at the midway stage of the eight-man vault final.
His average from his two vaults gave him a score of 15.116.
Armenia’s Artur Davtyan went last and nailed silver with Britain’s Harry Hepworth just denying his compatriot and reigning world champion Jake Jarman for the bronze.
Yulo revealed he had endured a restless night so hyped up was he after his fireworks on the floor on Saturday.
‘So sleepy’
“It’s crazy because last night I couldn’t sleep. This morning I was so sleepy, I didn’t know what to do.”
Hepworth disclosed he was planning an extravagant evening’s entertainment to mark his bronze.
“I will have a full pizza in the Olympic Village. That’s how I will celebrate,” he said with a laugh.
Over on the rings Liu, a two-time world champion on the apparatus, scored 15.300 points to lead a Chinese one-two ahead of silver medallist Zou Jingyuan, with Greece’s 2016 Olympic champion Eleftherios Petrounias taking bronze.
It took some — but not all — of the sting out of China’s agonizing silver-medal finish behind Japan in the men’s team competition.
“I have mixed feelings,” Liu said. “Even though I’m very happy for myself with the gold, I still haven’t gotten over the fact that we lost the gold medal in the team final.”
France’s Samir Ait Said finished fourth, coming up just short in his quest for a medal to mark his return from a horrific broken leg suffered in vault qualifying at Rio 2016.
US gymnastics great Simone Biles failed to qualify for the uneven bars final so enjoyed a rest day ahead of Monday’s closing action when she will be trying to add balance beam and floor gold to her team, all-around and vault titles in Paris.
