Great Britain, the bronze medalist in the London Games, came in fourth and beat the United States by more than a full point.
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Olympic gymnastics kicked off in Rio de Janeiro with men’s qualifying all day on Saturday.
Japan won gold by finishing with a spectacular performance on the floor, highlighted by Kenzo Shirai’s bouncing, soaring 16.133 en route to a total of 274.094.
In a sport where fractions decide titles, Japan’s total was 2.641 points more than surprise silver medallists Russian Federation, while China’s failure to stick their landings meant their eight-year Olympic reign was over long before the final rotation started. The team occupied the first position in qualifications, with a total score of 185.238 points.
“I have realised after today that the difference in strength between China and Japan has gotten much smaller”. Rounding out the eight-team final will be Ukraine and Germany.
Shirai bagged the second-highest individual score of the final just when his team needed it most. Getting pommel horse, which was the team’s Achilles heel in London when they finished fifth, out of the way early could either give them a confidence boost if it goes well or motivation to fight their way back if it doesn’t.
Four years after Uchimura’s botched dismount from the pommel horse nearly denied Japan a team medal in London, it looked as if the same apparatus would be their undoing again when Koji Yamamuro lost his grip and rolled off.
Rings: Liu Yang (CHN), Eleftherios Petrounias (GRE), You Hao (CHN), Arthur Zanetti (Brazil), Samir Ait Said (FRA)*, Dennis Goossens (BEL), Yuri VanGelder (NED).
“Winning gold at the Olympics is incredibly hard, that is what I realised”, Uchimura said.
But in the Olympic team final, the young group’s errors started piling up.
But he regrouped on the floor to qualify for the final of that event, behind Americans Samuel Mikulak and Jacob Dalton. Leyva and John Orozco made mistakes on the dreaded pommel horse.
French gymnast Samir Ait Said broke his left leg while trying to land a vault, the crack of the bone shattering upon impact with the mat echoing throughout the arena and the shocking images of Said holding it in his hands instantly going viral. The participants for the rest of the men’s competitions-team final, all-around final, and event finals-were decided during the three subdivisions during the qualifying round.
The Americans scored 268.560 to finish fifth, a place they have held in three of the past five team competitions. “I think this is something that we can take into the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo”.
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But the only member of the 2012 gold-winning team later paid tribute to their rivals, saying: “We have to be happy for Japan because every athlete wants to be the best”.
