Romanian Porgas takes lead at gymnastic worlds

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LONDON (AP) -- Ana Porgras of Romania breezed to the lead in qualifying at the world gymnastics championships Wednesday, putting her almost a full point ahead of Deng Linlin of China.

Porgras, who doesn't turn 16 until December, scored 57.300 points. Deng, a member of China's gold medal team from the Beijing Olympics, had 56.350 and American champion Bridget Sloan, the favorite for the all-around title, is third at 56.075 after falling off the balance beam.

But there are still two rotations left, and up-and-coming Rebecca Bross of United States has yet to compete.

Porgras isn't the only one making a splash at her first worlds. Kayla Williams of United States has the best score on vault and is in the top five on floor.

Before last month, her only trip to the Karolyi ranch had been for a developmental camp.

"It's crazy," Williams said. "It would definitely be easy to get swept up and realize this is the world championships. But I'm taking it like a regular meet. It's the same events, the same skills."

Maybe that's Porgras' trick. Romania is rebuilding after the retirement of 2007 silver medalist Steliana Nistor and the injury to Sandra Izbasa, the Olympic floor champ. But for Romania, rebuilding is more like a cosmetic update than a full-scale teardown.

Porgras was so composed she may as well have been back at her home gym. She didn't make any major mistakes, and showed the kind of class on balance beam that Romanians have long been known for. She flipped and twisted across the 10-centimeter (4-inch) wide beam with ease, her legs ramrod straight and her toes perfectly pointed.

She did a much easier vault than the other top women, but she was far enough ahead that it hardly mattered.

Sloan has come a long way from the shy, young girl who was an alternate on the U.S. team that won the gold medal at the 2007 worlds. Confident and outgoing, she made the transition from supporting role to star this season with ease and is considered the one to beat here in London.

She'll have to fix her mistakes from Wednesday, though.

On balance beam, her first event, she landed a front aerial somersault with her left foot hanging over the side of the apparatus. She waved her arms to try and save herself, but she was too far off-balance and had to jump off.

The rest of the routine was solid, but her score of 13.325 was much lower than she would normally score.

Sloan rallied nicely, though, with a show on floor that is exactly what gymnastics officials had in mind when they changed the rules after Beijing, limiting the number of tumbling runs on floor and acrobatics on beam, to try and put the "art" back into "artistic gymnastics."

Most girls simply twirl their hands in the air a few times, usually not even in time to their music, and call it choreography, though. Sloan, however, actually encorporated her music into her routine. She struck sultry poses that matched her Bollywood-style music, and landed her tumbling runs on the beat.

The upset of the day came from British favorite Beth Tweddle. The 2006 world champion on uneven bars fell on her signature event and won't make Saturday's final.

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