Kohei Uchimura stepped off the floor, saluted the crowd inside Rio Olympic Arena and bent over.
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Uchimura has now been unbeaten in the all-around since his silver at the 2008 Beijing Games – with seven Olympic titles to go along with his 19 in world championships – including ten world golds.
It wasn’t until the end when I was first up so I could then watch everyone, and it was really tough.
And relieved. No more questions about whether he can beat top rival China on the biggest stage.
The gymnast and his teammates, Ryohei Kato, Kenzo Shirai, Yusuke Tanaka and Koji Yamamuro, flashed smiles on the podium after their triumph.
The 27-year-old looked more exhausted than elated as he walked off the floor after sealing Japan’s first Olympic team gold since 2004, and finally completing his own vast collection of titles. Instead, he finished fourth in 2014 and 2015.
They soon found their stride, as Sam Mikulak, Jake Dalton and Alex Naddour put in stellar performances, with Mikulak, Chris Brooks, and Danell Leyva carryied the momentum onto the parallel bars. “It feels twice as heavy as it actually is since I know how hard we worked for it”. “We fought through everything and there’s no giving up. It’s the most representative and the most valuable, because gymnastics is a team effort”.
Red, white and blase for one quarter, the U.S. Olympic team woke up and won easily.
“I think compared to the Japan athletes, tonight we are a little bit less good, but this difference is very slight”, China’s Zhang Chenglong said. “I’m only thinking about winning the team title”.
Americans David Boudia and Steele Johnson earned silver with 457.11. Leyva was the only bright spot and almost helped the Americans overcome fourth-place Great Britain.
― Reuters picRIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 11 ― Kohei Uchimura left it late ― very, very late ― before a heart-stopping final horizontal bar routine lifted him into the pantheon of greats as he became the first gymnast in 44 years to win back-to-back Olympic all around titles yesterday.
World championship silver medallist Manrique Larduet withdrew because of injury after two rotations.
It was a late surge from Japan that ensured they won their second gold medal of the Rio games with a score of 274.095, with Russian Federation in second on 271.453 points.
Whitlock finished in third place behind Kohei Uchimura and Oleg Verniaiev but the Hertfordshire-based gymnast ended an 108-year wait for a British medal in the all-round event.
Great Britain’s Max Whitlock has admitted that he is delighted to have secured a bronze medal in the all-round final at the Olympic Games.
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The women’s world series champions conceded an early try to Kayla McAlister but rallied with two tries before halftime and another two after the break to take a 24-5 lead.
