3RD LEAD US gymnast Biles claims historic fourth gold at Rio Games By Frank Thomas, dpa

Rio de Janeiro (dpa) - American teenager Simone Biles became just the fourth woman in history to win four gymnastic golds at the same Olympic Games by triumphing in the floor exercise Tuesday.Biles, 19, not only took on the hardest routine of the eight finalists, but had the highest performance score as well en route to a winning score of 15.966.She won gold comfortably, ahead of defending champion and team-mate Aly Raisman (15.500) and Britain‘s Amy Tinkler (14.933)."I‘m a little bit relieved because it‘s been a long journey," Biles said. "I‘ve enjoyed every single moment of it and I know our team has."It‘s been very long and, competing so many times this week, it kind of got tiring. We just wanted to end on a good note."Previously, only the Soviet Union‘s Arisa Latynina, Czechoslovakia‘s Vera Caslavska and Romania‘s Ecaterina Szabo had won four golds at the same Games.Biles now joins that elite group with golds in the team, all-around and vault events in addition to the floor. She also took bronze on the balance beam."It‘s very crazy," Biles said. "To think what I‘ve done, its been an amazing experience and I don‘t think I could be more proud of myself."Earlier, Ukraine‘s Oleg Verniaiev produced a brilliant routine on the parallel bars to claim gold ahead of American Danell Levya and David Belyavskiy of Russia.Verniaiev had already won silver in the all-around at the Games and went one better on the bars by doing enough on a harder routine than Levya‘s."I‘m extremely happy. I‘m delighted," Verniaiev said. "I thank my team, I thank my fellow athletes who came from the different sports to cheer for me."It‘s been cool and I still cannot relax. I was ready for it. It was all about going out there and doing my routine."Chinese world champion You Hao finished last in the final having ruined his attempt with a fall.And 28-year-old German Fabrian Hambuechen ended his career with gold on the horizontal bar in his fourth Games, after winning bronze in 2008 and silver in 2012. Levya earned his second silver of the day behind him, while bronze went to Brit Nile Wilson."It is indescribable," Hambuechen said. "Before the Games I said this was going to be my last competition. I am going to retire, and to finish like that is a dream come true."