PARIS: Daiki Hashimoto conjured some late magic to propel Japan to Olympic gold in the men’s gymnastics team on Monday as arch-rivals China stumbled with the title within reach.
It was a record-extending eighth team title for Japan and made up for narrowly missing out on gold to Russia at the Tokyo Games. China won the silver and the United States the bronze ahead of Britain.
China were the favorites after dominating qualifying and in the streets ahead they only had to hold their nerve in the last of six heats to win.
But China’s Su Weide fell twice on the horizontal bars, leaving an unexpected opening for Japan to dig through on track.
And in a gut-wrenching denouement that had the Bercy Arena crowd on the edge of their seats, Hashimoto, the all-around and parallel bars champion in Tokyo three years ago, finally hit form.
After a quiet night, including a slip on his horse, the 22-year-old kicked into gear and produced a superb performance to see Japan home by just 0.532 points with a total of 259.594 points.
They take the crown left vacant due to Russia’s absence due to the invasion of Ukraine.
Hashimoto, whose nickname is “Mr Infinite Stamina,” said, “I had a lot on my mind, but when I got on the podium, I just focused on my performance.
“I felt that the rest of the team was behind me, they had my back. They were pushing me to the podium.”
“I almost cried before the show.
Hashimoto was joined on the top step by teammates Kazuma Kaya, Shinnosuke Oka, Wataru Tanigawa and Takaaki Sugino.
Su and his Chinese team were upset about their close miss.
“I think today taught me a big lesson, it’s a big regret,” he said.
“I feel sorry for my teammates. Because of my mistakes, we didn’t win the gold medal.”
A dejected Zhang Boheng added: “Unfortunately, we did not perform well in the last part.
“We’re frustrated. We’ve done very well up to that point.”
Until the final drama, China appeared to be firmly in control of the world champions.
After a slow start, the Zhang-led Chinese raced into the lead midway through the stage after Zou Jingyuan, Zhang and Liu Yang staged several cast iron crosses to secure control of the handstand on the laps.
Japan trailed in fifth place.
Ukraine briefly emerged as China’s main challenger after the fourth shift, thanks to great parallel bars from Illi Kovtun and Oleg Verniaiev.
Zou scored a huge qualifying score on parallel bars and the Tokyo champion didn’t disappoint with a 16,000 to put China three points ahead of the final rotation.
Japan will need a Herculean effort from defending beam champion Hashimoto if they are to usurp the Chinese.
And he came up with the goods, his performance combined with two Su faux pas to give Japan the gold it last won at Rio 2016. It was the first of 14 straight artistic gymnastics titles in Paris, with Simone Biles’ United States team in the spotlight in on Tuesday.
