AMY Tinkler had to settle for a disappointing 17th place in the women's all-around final at the World Gymnastics Championships in Montreal, as American 16-year-old Morgan Hurd took advantage of a number of big-name withdrawals to claim an unlikely gold.

Tinkler, who is based in Basildon, had looked on course to crack the top 10 after a solid start to her four rotations, but a poor performance on the uneven bars plunged her down the rankings and left her with a cumulative total of 50.899, behind Hurd's winning score of 55.232.

Hurd's team-mate Ragan Smith, who had been favoured for gold, withdrew after injuring her ankle in the warm-up, joining Romanian contender Larisa Iordache and absent four-time Olympic champion Simone Biles on the sidelines.

Hurd pipped home favourite Ellie Black, bidding to become Canada's first world champion, who had led going into the final floor routine before her final score of 13.433 left her an agonising 0.1 of a point short of making history.

The 17-year-old Tinkler said she would seek some solace in having reached the final after a tumultuous year, in which she switched clubs to join Max Whitlock at South Essex and spent months on the sidelines after ankle surgery.

Tinkler told Press Association Sport: "Obviously I'm disappointed with the way it finished but I was buzzing with the way I performed on the other pieces of apparatus and I know I can take a lot of things out of this for the future.

"I'd had a really difficult build-up this year and it's not great to go into a World Championships after just seven weeks of training, so really I should be glad that I've managed to make it here at all.

"But it was important for me to be here and try to reach the final after winning my bronze medal in Rio. I know there are a lot of things I can improve on so that gives me a lot of confidence going forward."

Tinkler will now focus her sights on next year's Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia, as well as working on nailing her all-around routine with one eye already on the next Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2020.

"The selection rules have changed a bit so all-around is even more important," Tinkler added. "I'm definitely an all-around gymnast and that's something I'm going to be working really hard on for the next few years."