But in winning a second consecutive Olympic all-around gold at Rio Olympic Arena on Wednesday, it’s possible the reigning king of gymnastics earned more adoration. Kohei Uchimura won the gold medal with a score of 92.365. At 42, Armstrong is also the oldest female Olympic cyclist to win a gold medal, a topic she addressed shortly after her victory.
Advertisement
Unfortunately for Verniaiev, all it took was one teeny-weeny little bobble on his dismount from the horizontal bar to lose to the man he called “the Michael Phelps or Usain Bolt of gymnastics”.
“Going onto the horizontal bar I knew what I had to do”. Chris Brooks finished 14th while capping a memorable rise through the qualifying process to make his first Olympic team at 29.
The gymnast known as King Kohei becomes the first man to successfully defend his title since countryman Sawao Kato in 1972.
But even if he had doubts, his rivals were not so sure.
“I really don’t think he (Uchimura) doubted himself”, said Verniaiev.
The 27-year-old gymnast had defended the gold medal he won four years ago in London, the first time in 44 years a gymnast has won the men’s all-around back-to-back, the Washington Post reported.
It will be the second day of action for the men as Rugby Sevens debuts at the Olympics and a crunch pool match between New Zealand and Great Britain looms, particularly after the Kiwis were stunned by Japan in their opening match Tuesday.
Whitlock, a two-time world all-around medallist, gave Britain a first Olympic men s all-around medal since Walter Tysal s silver in 1908. He performed solidly on the pommel horse, and dismounted perfectly off the rings.
“It’s always impressive the confidence he shows”.
“To stay at a level and at the top for that many years is a hard job”.
It was Verniaiev who has come closest to doing what no one has been able to do in eight years – beat Uchimura in an all-around competition.
“I can’t really explain why I have maintained this supremacy”, said Uchimura, unbeaten since taking the first of his record six world all-around titles in 2009.
While Uchimura was exulting in triumph, Verniaiev was basically just warming up.
Going into the final horizontal bar rotation – off which Uchimura had tumbled in qualifiers – just 0.901 separated the pair. Immune to the pressure, however, he then produced a daredevil routine that drew gasps from the rapt crowd, and stuck a flawless landing to score 15.8, while Verniaiev could only score 14.800 after failing to nail his landing.
He stuck a flawless landing to score 15.8 with Verniaiev delivering a less spectacular show on the apparatus losing out with 14.800.
Historically, Japan has been the best in the world in judo, entering 2016 with 36 Olympic gold medals while the three next-best countries-France (12), South Korea (11) and China (8)-had just 31 combined. The crowd groaned when the score was revealed, though Verniaiev shrugged as if to say “what can you do?” “I did everything I could”. “Even if I lose the gold, I would not be disappointed”, said the Japanese, who had the leading scores in high bar, floor and vault.
Uchimura made headlines at the start of the Rio Games after racking up a 500,000 yen ($5,000) bill playing Pokemon Go on his arrival in Brazil.
And more gold could come when he competes in the floor final next week.
Advertisement
World championship silver medallist Manrique Larduet withdrew because of injury after two rotations.
