By Matt Pepin and John Powers, Globe Staff

Less than a point difference in tiebreaker scores was the difference between a bronze medal and a fourth-place finish for Needham's Aly Raisman in the women's gymnastics all-around event Thursday in London.

When two gymnasts tie in total score, which happened when Raisman and bronze medalist Aliya Mustafina both finished with 59.566, the tiebreaker is based on the sum of the execution and difficulty scores for each gymnast’s top three apparatus scores. By that measure, Mustafina had 45.933, Raisman 45.366.

"Of course it's a huge bummer, but I'm still fourth in the world, so that's something to be proud of," Raisman said. "It's also a bummer that they can't just let us both get a bronze medal, but I'm happy for the girls that are on the podium."

Raisman had scores in the 14s in bars and beam, so one had to count. Mustafina got to drop her 13.633 on beam and had a 16, 15 and 14 to Raisman’s 15, 15 and 14. Bars was the difference – it’s Raisman’s weakest event and Mustafina's best.

Mustafina finished first on bars, while Raisman tied for ninth. Raisman finished higher than Mustafina in each of the other three events.

"It is what it is," Raisman said. "I feel sad because I was so close to getting a medal but I'm still fourth in the world so I'm really proud about that."

Here's a breakdown of the scores by event for each gymnast, with their finish position in parentheses

VAULT
Raisman (2): 6.5 difficulty, 9.4 execution, 15.9 total
Mustafina (5): 5.8 difficulty, 9.433 execution, 15.233 total

UNEVEN BARS
Raisman (t9): 5.9 difficulty, 8.433 execution, 14.333 total
Mustafina (1): 7.0 difficulty, 9.1 execution, 16.1 total

BEAM
Raisman (10): 6.2 difficulty, 8.0 execution, 14.2 total
Mustafina (18): 6.1 difficulty, 7.533 execution, 13.633 total

FLOOR
Raisman (2): 6.3 difficulty, 8.833 execution, 15.133 total
Mustafina (6): 5.9 difficulty, 8.7 execution, 14.6 total