Gymnast Simone Biles claims record 13th world gold medal

Simone Biles became the first ever gymnast to win 13 world championship gold medals with victory in the individual vault competition in Qatar on Friday.

The 21-year-old American broke the all-time record set by Belarusian male gymnast Vitaly Scherbo in 1996, a year before Biles was born.

It was Biles' third gold medal of the week so far in Doha and she is halfway to a possible sweep of six gold medals at these championships.

This was also her 17th world championship medal overall, which means she is just three shy of the all-time record of 20, held by Russia's Svetlana Khorkina.

Favourite to take gold in the event, she received a mark of 15.366, well ahead of second-placed Shallon Olsen from Canada, who finished on 14.516.

Bronze went to Mexico's Alexa Moreno, with 43-year-old Oksana Chusovitina in fourth.

Biles has another chance of a gold medal later on Friday in the uneven bars event.

Earlier, all-around gold medal winner Artur Dalaloyan won the men's floor exercise gold medal.