Khorkina wins two gymnastic golds

GHENT, Belgium, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- All-around women's champion Svetlana Khorkina of Russia and Jordan Jovtchev of Bulgaria both won two gold medals Saturday night on the first of two evenings of apparatus finals at the World Gymnastics Championships.

Khorkina captured both of the women's events contested -- the balance beam and uneven bars -- while Jovtchev won the floor exercise and rings.

Khorkina demonstrated two extremely difficult vaults with good landings for a total score of 9.412. Oxana Tchusovitina of Uzbekistan won the silver with 9.349 and Andreea Raducan of Romania captured the bronze with 9.243. Tchusovitina, 26, won the silver medal at the world championships 10 years ago.

On the uneven bars, Khorkina won her second straight world title and backed up the gold medal she won in the event at the 2000 Olympics.

She scored 9.437, edging Renske Endel of the Netherlands (9.425). Katie Heenan of the United States won the night's only medal for an American, capturing the bronze with 9.212.

Jovtchev shared the gold medal in the floor exercise with Romania's Marian Dragulescu with scores of 9.550. Igor Vihrov of Latvia was third with a 9.425. Vihrov won the event at last year's Olympics.

On the rings, Jovtchev received a score of 9.775 to easily best Hungary's Szilvester Csollany (9.712) and Italy's Andrea Coppolino (9.659).

The highest quality exercises of the night came in the pommel horse, where Romanian Marius Urzica won with a score of 9.800. China's Xiao Qin was second with a 9.775 and Olexander Beresch of the Ukraine was third at 9.662.