NANNING, China: American Simone Biles retained her world women’s all-around gymnastics title Friday, fighting off a late challenge from Romania’s Larisa Andreea Iordache.

The 17-year-old Biles finished the four-apparatus final at 60.231 points, 0.466 better than Iordache at 59.765.

Fellow American Kyla Ross, the 2013 runner-up to Biles, finished third at 58.232 in the final at the Guangxi Gymnasium in Nanning, China.

Biles became the first female gymnast since Russia’s Svetlana Khorkina in 2003 to win a second straight all-around world crown.

She is also the second US woman to ever win back-to-back world all-around titles with Shannon Miller trailing the blaze in 1993 and 1994.

Bunched in an elite rotational group of top six qualifiers, the two-consecutive-time US national champion took a 0.700-lead after her first apparatus, vault.

But the cushion wore off with China’s Yao Jinnan topping the table on uneven bars and Iordache dominated balance beam by landing safely on the padded beam after a twisted back salto.

Biles stood just 0.133 points clear of the 18-year-old Romanian going into the final event, floor exercise.

But Iordache stepped out of bounds after one of her dynamic tumbling passes for a 0.1-point deduction to score 14.733.

Biles, the defending world floor champion, performed last on the night and wowed a near-capacity crowd at the 4,000-seat arena by soaring high and landing clean in each of her dynamic tumbling passes to earn a field-topping 15.066 points.

It was her second gold at these championships as she led her country to a second straight women’s team title on Wednesday.