Italian star Sofia Raffaeli won the gold medal in the hoop at the Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday.
    The 21-year-old from Ancona in Marche repeated her result from Sofia 2022.
    She first with a score of 30.650, beating Bulgarian Stiliana Nikolova (29.950) and Germany's Anastasia Simakova (29.400).
    Raffaeli is the 2024 Olympic bronze medalist, the 2022 World all-around, hoop, ball, ribbon and team champion, the 2023 World all-around, hoop and ball silver medalist, the 2025 World all-around bronze medalist and a two-time European silver all-around medalist.

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