Kohei Uchimura’s gold-medal haul keeps growing.
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A strong vault from Uchimura pulled him above Whitlock and moved him closer to Verniaiev after rotation four, while a less hard routine from Whitlock on the parallel bars saw him slip slightly behind, although he remained comfortably clear of fourth-placed Chinese gymnast Chaopan Lin. Neither Verniaiev nor Uchimura made any noticeable mistakes throughout their finals; this was a finale that came down to very minor deductions, many of which were not even visible to the casual viewer’s eye.
Ukraine’s Oleg Verniaiev completes his routine on the vault during the artistic gymnastics men&# …
Uchimura won with a total of 92.365.
Max Whitlock of Great Britain was third, just ahead of Russia’s David Belyavskiy.
Meanwhile, Team USA representatives Chris Brooks and Sam Mikulak were off the pace after a tough start to the final.
“Six world championships and two Olympic wins in eight years is a great victory”. He got that triumphant moment on Monday night, when he guided the Japanese to the top of the podium for the first time since 2004 with a almost flawless finishing kick on floor exercise.
“It went down to the last five or six routines and Max went up first, set the bar and had to sit and wait”.
But at the half-way stage it was Verniaiev, the 2014 world champion on the parallel bars, who emerged as the front runner, shattering the notion that it would be a straight shoot-out between Whitlock and Uchimura, with the Briton in silver medal position and the Japanese star in bronze. Ukraine qualified for the team final but basically gave up when Maksym Semiankiv couldn’t participate in the finals due to injury.
“There are no weak athletes in this sport, but the fact that we compete with this legend, with this guy who already since 2009 does not give up, would not let go of this title, I think that this is the coolest thing in the world”, said Verniaiev. When his team-mates raised their arms to celebrate their gold on the podium earlier this week, they inadvertently lifted him off his feet – but he looks taller as he moves through the air, his body creating long lines and artful curves, his toes as en point as a ballerina. When Uchimura drilled a 15.566 on vault the highest of the night on the event Verniaiev responded with a 15.500. “I showed myself and the world that I can do it”.
“I am quite happy that I managed to make Kohei very nervous, but he still retains his title and I really, really am very happy for him”, said Ukrainian Oleg Verniaiev.
Whitlock’s Olympic medal is only the ninth won by a British gymnast and the first in the men’s all-around event since Walter Tysall’s silver in 1908. He pumped his fist and encouraged the crowd as he exited the podium, then bent over in disappointment afterward.
The 2012 Olympic bronze medalist, Danell Leyva of the United States of America, did not compete in Wednesday’s event.
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Mikulak, a four-time national champion, was hoping to make an worldwide splash but saw his hopes of reaching the podium end when he shorted his vault landing during his third rotation.
