Gymnastics-Australia's Sims wins unlikely gold

MELBOURNE, Mar 18 (Reuters) Australian teenager Chloe Sims grabbed an unexpected Commonwealth Games gold medal after she finished in a dead heat with Canadian Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs in the women's all-round gymnastics today.

Sims, 15, and Hopfner-Hibbs finished tied on 57.100 points at the end of their four routines but the gold medal was awarded to the Australian on a countback.

''I am really speechless. I really don't know what I am feeling or anything like that,'' Sims told reporters.

Sims claimed victory because her best three scores -- the vault, uneven bars and beam, totalled 43.500.

Hopfner-Hibbs' best three, the uneven bars, the beam and the floor exercise came to 43.200.

Sims later admitted that she did not even know that there would be a countback.

''I didn't think we were going to be split, I thought we were both getting gold,'' she said.

''I had to ask her on the podium whether she was getting gold or not and she told me she was getting silver and I was really confused but she deserves gold as well as me.'' Australian Hollie Dykes claimed the bronze medal with a total of 55.800.

Sims's victory was even more surprising because it came after the last-minute withdrawal of local favourite Monette Russo with an ankle injury sustained in training last month.

Russo had led Australia to team gold and had qualified second for the all-round final.

The men's all-round final followed the same medal pattern, with Australia winning gold and bronze and Canada the silver.

Joshua Jefferis won the gold medal in his first Commonwealth Games appearance, setting it up with a high-scoring vault.

Canadian Nathan Gafuik was still well-placed to win the gold before Jefferis closed with a strong performance on his final routine, the horizontal bars, to finish with a total of 89.450.

Gafuik finished with 88.350.

Philippe Rizzo won the bronze medal with a total of 88.200 after an inconsistent day. The experienced Rizzo had been well-placed but was let down by a poor floor routine.

REUTERS DH RN1946