Olympics-Gymnastics-Biles leads U.S. women back to the top, Japanese men shine at Paris Games

By Rory Carroll

PARIS (Reuters) - Simone Biles and the United States women's team got the redemption they craved and the Japanese men maintained their dominance over rivals China in an engrossing and unpredictable gymnastics competition at the Paris Olympics.

Biles, an athlete who has transcended the sport to become a global icon, stunned the world when she withdrew from the Tokyo Games three years ago with a mental block that made it dangerous to perform her high-flying routines.

She returned to the Olympic stage in Paris happy and healthy and won three golds -- in the team event, all-around and vault -- and took silver in the floor exercise after losing to her Brazilian rival Rebeca Andrade by the slimmest of margins.

In a balance beam final where Biles was one of four gymnasts to fall from the apparatus, Alice D'Amato emerged the surprise winner to clinch Italy's first women's gymnastics gold medal.

Algerian teenager Kaylia Nemour also made history with an emotional gold-medal victory on the asymmetric bars to give Africa their first ever gymnastics medal.

On the men's side, China blew a huge late lead against Japan in the team event after Su Weide fell twice from the horizontal bar in the final rotation.

That shocking turnaround gave 20-year-old Japanese breakout star Shinnosuke Oka his first gold medal of the Games, but it would not be his last.

In the all-around final, defending champion Daiki Hashimoto of Japan and China's Zhang Boheng made costly early errors while Oka was solid across all six rotations to emerge as the new champion.

Oka capped his stay in Paris with a gold-medal performance on the horizontal bar and a bronze in parallel bars in a final that was dominated by China's Zou Jingyuan, known as the 'king of parallel bars.'

China also struck gold when Liu Yang retained his rings title.

Rhys McClenaghan gave Ireland the country's first gymnastics title with a gold-medal effort on pommel horse.

And Carlos Edriel Yulo broke new ground for the Philippines and will take gold medals in vault and floor exercise to one -- or possibly two -- new homes that a real estate company has promised to give anyone winning gold for the team.

(Reporting by Rory Carroll in Paris; editing by Clare Fallon)