ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) – There’s another gold rush for the U.S. gymnasts in California.

Paul Hamm followed up his all-around title with another electrifying performance Saturday night, winning gold on the floor exercise at the World Gymnastics Championships. Hollie Vise and Chellsie Memmel then tied for gold on the uneven bars.

“It’s the perfect outcome,” said Jim Chudy, Memmel’s coach. “Double gold for the United States.”

The Americans are heavy medal monsters these days. They’ve won five golds so far at worlds, and seven medals overall.

It’s their best showing at a world championships since the 1979 team took home eight medals, and their best finish at a major international competition since the 1984 Olympics – just up the road in Los Angeles.

And there could still be more to come. Blaine Wilson qualified for Sunday’s parallel bars final, while Memmel will be up on the beam.

The Americans came here with high hopes, but even this has to be beyond their expectations. Hamm is now 3-for-3, winning a silver with the U.S. team Tuesday, then becoming the first American man ever to win the all-around title.

The U.S. women won the team gold despite losing half the squad to illness and injury, and Carly Patterson won a silver in the all-around Friday night.

“Part of our team plan is we’re here from the beginning to the end, regardless of the successes we might have,” said Stacy Maloney, Hamm’s coach.

Or the slipups.

Vise had a disastrous showing on the bars in team finals, forgetting her participant’s number in the warmup gym. Coaches had to scramble, writing a number with black magic marker on her back and attaching it to her just before she went up.

But the confusion flustered the 15-year-old, and she fell on a release move.

“I really wanted to show everyone I could do it,” Vise said. “I was a little hyper during team finals, and I didn’t take my time.”

She got a second chance, though. Added to the bars final after teammate Courtney Kupets tore her Achilles’ tendon, Vise made sure she took advantage of it.

“Tonight, I was focused,” she said. “And I had my number.”

She was breathtakingly beautiful on the bars, twirling and pirouetting like a ballerina. When it came time for the release move that was her downfall in the finals, she did it as easily as if the bar was a foot wide and just 2 inches off the ground.

She was leaning forward a bit as she landed, but she held her landing as if she was hanging on for dear life. When she straightened up, a wide grin crossed her face.

“There’s more pressure in the team competition,” Vise said. “I still wanted this really badly since I messed up during team competition.”

Not to be outdone, Memmel followed with an equally spectacular routine.

Added to the U.S. team as a late alternate, the 15-year-old from West Allis, Wis., has become the squad’s rock. She was 8-for-8 in the team finals and preliminaries, and finished tied for eighth in the all-around.

She did impossible twirling tricks on the bars, looking as if she was quadruple jointed when she flipped backward around the bars, holding tight to them with both hands.

She took a small hop on her landing, but it wasn’t enough to tarnish her gold.

“I wasn’t even expecting to compete,” she said. “The team gold was really cool, and this one is amazing.”

Hamm has a bronze on floor from last year’s individual event world championships in Hungary, but it has a bit of a tainted feel to it.

He originally finished fourth, but was awarded the bronze July 30 after Spanish gymnast Gervasio Deferr failed a drug test and was stripped of his silver medal.

“I didn’t perform poorly there, but I was so close, I wanted to get that gold on the floor,” Hamm said. “I really worked hard on this the last year, and it paid off.”

He opened with a double twisting, double layout, soaring high above the floor as he corkscrewed his body through two somersaults. Though he took a small step on his landing, it hardly mattered since the pass is one of the most difficult tricks around.

The rest of his routine was nearly perfect. Balancing on his hands while he whipped his legs up and around in flares, he was so smooth, so fluid that even the best breakdancer in some of those ’80s music videos would have had to clear room for him.

He finished with a double layout, sticking his landing so securely he could have had duct tape on his feet. The audience roared, and Hamm raised his fist in triumph.

But Jovtchev, who won the floor title at the 2001 worlds, was still to come.

The 30-year-old Jovtchev, who has been doing gymnastics longer than Hamm’s been alive, dropped out of Thursday’s all-around competition after slamming his face and shoulder on the parallel bars. No broken bones were found when he was examined at a local hospital, but he still has a sore chest.

“It only hurts when I breathe or rollover,” Jovtchev said. “But not when I tumble.”

His floor routine might not have been as dynamic as Hamm’s, but he was solid. He had all the tough tricks, and he knocked them off one by one as if they were causing him no effort.

Even more impressive was his routine on still rings. Jovtchev held a cross – hanging suspended in the air with his arms extended – for what seemed like hours. It’s a tough enough skill to do when healthy. With a sore chest, it had to have been agony.

But it was worth it, as Jovtchev added another gold. He now has nine medals – three gold – at the world championships.

“It’s very hard, gymnastics,” Jovtchev said. “Either someone likes you, or someone doesn’t.”

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