Maybe when she ties the record, she'll do it by winning a gold.

This time, Liukin settled for the silver medal in the uneven bars finals, falling one spot short of becoming a world champion in her signature event for the second straight year. Ksenia Semenova of Russia beat Liukin for the gold by 0.05 points.

Liukin's father and coach, Valeri, wasn't pleased with the result — but not so much because of any mistake his daughter made.

Rather, he was miffed that an Australian judge gave his daughter an 8.8 execution mark in this event when the other judges awarded her at least 9.1s. There were similar discrepancies in preliminaries.

"It's cheating, and it's been going on this whole competition," Liukin said. "Even when she'd stick it, the scores were bad. So, I don't know. There's something going on. Everybody was pointing at her."

In other event finals, American Alicia Sacramone won a bronze on vault to add to her silver there last year. Americans Guillermo Alvarez finished fourth on men's floor exercise, Kevin Tan finished fourth on rings and Sasha Artemev finished sixth on pommel horse, failing to add to the bronze he won in that event in 2006.

Other winners included Brazil's Diego Hypolito (floor) and China's Chen Yibing (rings), Xiao Qin (pommel) and Cheng Fei (women's vault), all of whom won their second straight titles in those events to join Yang Wei (all-around on Friday) as back-to-back champions. China now has five gold medals — both men and women — and needs three more Sunday to match the record it set last year.

Liukin won her eighth world championship medal, a haul highlighted by her team gold this year and her world championships in beam and bars in 2005. She'll have a chance to tie Miller with a ninth medal Sunday in beam finals.

"Shannon, she's a great inspiration to have so many medals like that," Liukin said. "It's someone I look up to, knowing how great she was and how much she achieved."

Liukin is, by many accounts, the most graceful gymnast in the world and one of the best the United States has ever seen. She gets as big a hand as anyone when she's introduced at big international events like this. Even International Gymnastics Federation president Bruno Grandi gave her a kiss on the cheek after this most recent close call.

But how many more chances will she get? She's almost 18, and the cruel reality in women's gymnastics is that most 18-year-olds are closer to the end of their careers in elite gymnastics than the beginning.

Also, Shawn Johnson has established herself as the best gymnast in America, and the world, courtesy of the all-around titles she won at nationals last month, then here at worlds Friday night.

Where does Liukin fit in?

Well, it's almost sure she'll take a long rest after worlds to get her injured ankle fully back. It nagged her since about this time last year, and though she made considerable improvement over the last several weeks, there were still signs it's bothering her.

For instance, in her fifth-place finish in the all-around Friday, she fell off the beam after a difficult combination of three straight backflips — a trick she simply hasn't been able to practice as much lately in an attempt to protect the ankle.

Bars, meanwhile, haven't been as much of a problem.

That was the only event she competed in at worlds last year when she was still fresh off the injury, and team coordinator Martha Karolyi complained loudly when Liukin got edged out by Elizabeth Tweddle of Britain for the gold.

This time, it was Semenova acing out Liukin on the second of two routines that couldn't have been more different.

Semenova is 4-foot-7 and packs quick, tight spins and release moves into her routines.

Liukin is more like 5-2 and seems to spend her time elegantly looping her way back and forth between the bars.

Like Liukin's father, Karolyi thought the result could have been different.

"I feel that Nastia is more technically precise and her lines are more perfect than the Russian girl," Karolyi said. "Yes, I think she should have gold. But a silver medal is very nice. We'll take that and go work some more."

In the end, Semenova had 0.1 points more difficulty in her routine, which accounted for the difference between the two.

Or maybe it was that Australian judge's marks. In gymnastics, the high and low execution scores are each thrown out and the other four are averaged. So, while the 8.8 didn't count, it did indirectly cost Liukin a tenth or two that were precious with such a close finish.

A disappointing result?