Gymnastics:15th - but still smiling

A botched beam ruined Belinda Castles' medal prospects but didn't quell the New Zealand gymnast's endeavour in the all-around final.

Castles was 15th and teammate Olivia Jobsis 16th in the 24-woman final, but it could have been a lot worse for the top-ranked Aucklander, who plunged to the rear of the field after her first discipline.

She drew her worst apparatus first, the beam, and didn't respond. "I was dead last, so to come back to 15th, I was quite happy with myself," she said.

"I had a lot of nerves, I guess, and getting my weakest event to start with, I was a little bit thrown. It couldn't have been any worse and I just had to bounce back."

Castles was fifth best on the vault with a score of 13.95 and produced a slick 12.85 performance on the uneven bars, the apparatus in which she has qualified for the top-eight final tonight.

"I was hoping to do better overall but apart from the beam I was quite happy."

Castles' total score was 50.60, just 0.05 points ahead of her teammate through the four apparatus. Australian Chloe Sims won gold with 57.10 points.

Castles, 19, will stay with the sport, planning to have surgery on her wrist before the world championships in October. A ligament problem has required regular cortisone injections to prevent pain in training and competition.

Mark Holyoake was the best New Zealander on display, just missing a top-10 finish in the men's all-around final.

Holyoake was 11th out of 24 with a score of 82.70 points, while Daniel Good was 15th on 82.0 and Misha Koudinov 20th on 77.40. Australian gold medallist Joshua Jefferis won with 89.45.

Holyoake produced easily the best pommel score of 14.55 but was below his best in other apparatus.

He will contest the parallel bars final tomorrow.

The most encouraging effort over the past three days came from Vladivostok-born Koudinov, 14, who was happy to make the final in his first major international assignment.

- NZPA