Gymnastics: Tweddle adds silver lining to golden year

Beth Tweddle rounded off a memorable year by adding a silver medal in the floor final to her uneven bars title at the World Cup final here. The 21-year-old finished with a score of 15.200, with the local gymnast Daiane Dos Santos claiming gold.

The World Cup final ranks only behind the Olympic Games and world championships. Gymnasts earned points over the last two years, with the top eight in each event qualifying for the final.

While Dos Santos won the women's floor routine, the Romanian Marian Dragulescu won the men's vault.

Dos Santos, also the winner on the floor exercise at the 2003 World Championships, received a score of 15.600, edging Tweddle and another Brazilian, Lais Souza (14.925).

It completed a monumental year for the Liverpool gymnast, who was crowned the European champion before becoming the first Briton to win a world title when she won on the uneven bars in Aarhus, Denmark, in October. Tweddle then came third in the BBC's Sports Personality of the Year, which was won by Zara Phillips.