On Aug. 10, 2016, Kohei Uchimura won the gold medal at the Rio Olympics in the men’s gymnastics individual all-around final.
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Uchimura was masterful, but he was not as dominant over the competition as the gymnastics world is accustomed to seeing. After seven minutes of the judges calculating, a 14.8 was called for Verniaiev and Uchimura won the gold. I didn’t know any of the scores of any of the other gymnasts at any point. Brooks slowly inched up in the second rotation and then earned a strong 15.066 on the parallel bars to put him within striking distance of the podium at the halfway point.
While Uchimura was exulting in triumph, Verniaiev was basically just warming up.
“If you go back and maximize his score it would be tough to get into that top two, that 92 point threshold is really hard”, USA national team director Kevin Mazeika said of the Corona del Mar High School graduate. Even some of the same beats were there.
But there is a saying in gymnastics that if you’re going to win on the bar, you have to let go of the bar and the Ukrainian’s cautious routine left him no room for error as he flew into the dismount.
Verniaiev, who had led for part of the competition, had to settle for second with Whitlock taking Britain’s first medal in the all-around final for 108 years.
On Britain’s most successful day in Rio de Janeiro so far, Whitlock added to the medal haul by clinging on for third place over the six apparatus after leading in the early stages.
Their two-hour duel provided the closest call in Uchimura’s run of two Olympic crowns and six world all-around championships. Knowing what he needed to win Ukraine’s first ever all-around Olympic gold in the sport, he put together an easier and less risky routine.
The scoreboard made starkly clear the mark Verniaiev would have to earn, when he stepped up to the high bar, retain his hold on gold. He had staggered backward after landing his vault and fell to the mat. Chris Brooks finished 14th while capping a memorable rise through the qualifying process to make his first Olympic team at 29.
American Sam Mikulak recovered from a fall on vault to rally to seventh. Unfortunately for Brooks, his two last events were his two worst and despite hitting his routines, the scores were just the 19th highest on each and he slipped in the standings.
“My country is going to host the next Olympics”.
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.
Kohei Uchimura didn’t need another all-around gold to have the unwavering respect of his peers.
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Back home, he is a superstar and his next target will be to compete in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
