Alicia Sacramone of the United States came out of retirement to win the gold medal in the vault at the world championships Saturday, edging all-around champion Aliya Mustafina.
Mustafina was also second in the uneven bars behind Britain's Elizabeth Tweddle, giving the Russian two silvers on Saturday to add to two golds.
In the biggest surprise of the day, Olympic and defending champion He Kexin crashed off the bar, ending her overwhelming domination of the event. That gave America's Rebecca Bross her third medal and second bronze of the championships.
Mustafina is the most successful gymnast at the world championships so far and still has two events on Sunday.
The men's all-around champion Kohei Uchimura won his third medal, finishing second behind Greece's Eleftherios Kosmidis on the floor. He still has the parallel bars on Sunday.
On the pommel horse, specialists dominated with Hungarian Krisztian Berki taking gold ahead of Britain's Louis Smith. "Lord of the Rings" Chen Yibing added the world rings title to his Olympic gold, beating fellow Chinese Yan Mingyong.
China led the medals tables with five medals overall and two gold, while Bross and Sacramone helped the United States to five overall as well. Mustafina's Russia had four overall.
The most excitement came on the women's vault where a judging controversy added to the golden return of 22-year-old Sacramone.
Sacramone was first of the finalists out and immediately set a high target with an average 15.200 on her two vaults. When Mustafina followed with a first vault of 15.733, it seemed Sacramone was reduced to silver at best.
"To be honest, after her first vault I was like, 'I like silver."' Sacramone said.
Mustafina has been near-flawless throughout the week and was poised for her third gold. However, the judges deducted her second vault heavily for a technical deficiency - and it made the difference, as her average slumped to 15.066.
"Her landing was a little bit low and I was kind of waiting it out like everybody else," Sacramone said.
What followed was, according to Sacramone, "the longest 30 minutes of my life" before the results were confirmed and the American had her title.
Mustafina had to pick herself up and head immediately to her next final, the uneven bars. Her job was made easier when the totally unexpected happened - a mistake from He.
Throughout the nine-day event, He had been above all competition on the bars but she crashed halfway through her routine and could not recover, finishing seventh of eight finalists.
