A golden day for U.S. women

STUTTGART, Germany — The American women are dripping in gold.

Nastia Liukin saved her best for last, winning the balance beam title Sunday, while new all-around champion Shawn Johnson won the floor exercise to add yet another gold medal to her collection from the world gymnastics championships.

That gives the U.S. women four of the six gold medals at worlds. Throw in Liukin's silver on the uneven bars, Alicia Sacramone's silver on floor and her bronze on vault, and the Americans won seven medals here.

"Being the team world champion is great, don't get me wrong," Liukin said. "But individually, it's something just totally different from a team medal. Being able to be named a world champion individually, it's such a great honor."

Not a bad way to go to next year's Beijing Olympics.

The Germans might not be done partying until then after their favorite, Fabian Hambuechen, capped the day with a gold medal on the high bar. It gave Hambuechen a complete set of medals here; he also won a silver in the all-around and a bronze in the team event, Germany's first team medal since 1991.

China, meanwhile, was shut out from the last-day gold rush. After winning three golds Saturday, the Chinese came away with only Li Shanshan's silver on balance beam Sunday.

All-around champ Yang Wei botched his very first move on parallel bars, ending his chance of winning a second gold in a row on that event. Cheng Fei fell out of bounds on floor.

"This is a competition," Yang said. "Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Very cruel."

Japan's Hiroyuki Tomita might say that about the whole week. Tomita, the world champ in 2005, fell off the high bar twice Sunday. He went 0-for-4 in individual events, leaving with only a team silver.

Mitja Petkovsek of Slovenia won the parallel bars and Leszek Blanik of Poland won the vault.

Liukin's gold Sunday was her ninth worlds medal — fourth gold — and tied her with Shannon Miller for most by a U.S. gymnast.

Maybe her mom will come watch more often now.

Liukin's mother, Anna, a former rhythmic gymnastics world champion, gets so nervous she almost never watches her daughter compete. But it's been a tough year for Liukin and an even tougher week.