Japanese gymnast Kohei Uchimura pulled off an incredible comeback in the men’s gymnastics all-around final on Wednesday in Rio to become the first male gymnast in 44 years to repeat as Olympic gold medalist in the event.
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A soaring horizontal bar routine saw the 27-year-old snatch the coveted individual title ahead of Ukraine’s Oleg Verniaiev, winning by just 0.099, in a thrilling final in the Rio Olympic Arena. It was the first Olympic medal in men’s gymnastics for the country since 1908, a fact that made Whitlock smile broadly when it was announced in a press conference after the event. “But I have come as close as possible to him as nobody has before”, summed up Verniaiev. A massive 16.1 by Verniaiev on parallel bars asked yet more questions of the defending champion, who replied with a 15.600 following another small hop on his landing.
Uchimura won with a total of 92.365.
“To keep it going for that long is just insane”, summed up Britain’s Max Whitlock, who picked up bronze behind Uchimura and Ukraine’s Oleg Verniaiev.
He also part of the first British men’s gymnastics team to win a world silver medal. Verniaiev held his lead into the final round, but the bar is one of Uchimura’s strongest events while perhaps the weakest for the Ukranian. He took over first place 0.17 seconds faster than the previous paddler, Peter Kauzer, of Slovenia, a two-time world champion and the world series titleholder.
Mikulak finished seventh in the all-around qualification round.
“The Olympic men’s gymnastics individual all-around final has wrapped up in Rio, with the difference between gold and silver proving razor thin”. Chris Brooks was 14th.
Looked like it. Verniaiev led from the second rotation on, answering every time it seemed Uchimura was ready to take over. But Verniaiev wasn’t far behind, scoring a 15.500 immediately following Uchimura for the second highest scoring vault for the day. Verniaiev did not do high bar in the team final on Monday, but in qualifying his high bar score was a 15.133, plenty good enough to stake his claim atop the podium. Great Britain’s Max Whitlock was a distant third at 90.641.
Nineteen other golds will be awarded across 11 sports as the race for Olympic bragging rights really heats up Wednesday. The turnaround meant Uchimura won by just.099 of a point. He had staggered backward after landing his vault and fell to the mat.
Verniaiev shrugged off the decision, saying it gave him freedom to just go out and have fun.
Uchimura already has the gold he wants more from the Rio Olympics.
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After the frightening crashes which marred both the men’s and women’s road races, the world’s best cyclists will battle it out in a race against the clock in the men’s and women’s individual time trials. But instead, the final high bar routine was as ideal as it needed to be and the competition fittingly ended with the king on top.
