U.S. superstar Simone Biles clinched her fifth All-Around title at the 2019 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany on Thursday. While Biles's title seemed booked in advance, China's 16-year-old Tang Xijing made the day's biggest surprise by grabbing the silver medal. 

Tang made the most of her opportunity. She performed a gorgeous floor routine, clean with magnificent leaps and fantastic landings at her first appearance at a significant international competition. 

Tang became China's first All-Round medalist in eight years. She had qualified third-best of China's gymnasts, with only two per country allowed in the final round. Tang was drafted in to replace teammate Liu Tingting, who fell on two routines in Tuesday's team final. 

"I didn't even watch the results myself, so it was really surprising," said Tang. "I did not think about the previous moves, even if it was incorrect. This silver medal means that I'm getting one more step closer to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics."

She was determined to make up for a weaker performance in the qualifying round and team final. "I tried to avoid the same mistakes," she commented. 

"When I was on the court to compete, I only thought about the next move. Nothing else was in my mind." 

Tang said she is thankful for her coach and teammate Liu Tingting. "She was always along the court to cheer for me today. That helped me a lot and made me feel relaxed and warm." 

Biles extended her own record as the most decorated woman in world championships history to leave her just short of male gymnast Vitaly Scherbo's record of 23 world medals.

Her winning margin of 2.1 points was her biggest at a world championships and was identical to her winning gap in the same event at the 2016 Olympics.

She can break Scherbo's mark in this weekend's four apparatus finals.

However, she was slightly bewildered by her worlds medal tally and amazed by her own displays in Stuttgart.

"I feel like it's not me and sometimes I wonder how I do it. I sometimes wish I could have an out-of-body experience to witness it," she said, laughing.

"I look back at videos and wonder how I did that."

Biles led from the start, nailing her first discipline with a superb vault which scored 15.223 points.

She followed that up with a solid display on the uneven bars, where she posted the third-highest score, to consolidate her lead.

Biles dominated the beam and sealed gold with the highest score of 14.400 in the floor exercise when she had only needed 12.300 for the title.

With two golds won and potentially four more medals to come, Biles has put a testing two years behind her.

In January 2018, she revealed she was a victim of Larry Nassar, the disgraced former doctor of the U.S. women's Olympic team, who was jailed for sexually abusing hundreds of girls and women.

In August, her brother was arrested and charged with a shooting which left three people dead last December.