Rio de Janeiro (dpa) – Kohei Uchimura emulated legendary countryman Sawao Kato when he claimed back-to-back Olympic all-around gymnastics golds for Japan on Wednesday in a dramatic battle with Ukraine’s Oleg Verniaiev. Uchimura ” s main challrenger for the gold, Ukraine’s Verniaiev now moved past Kato into third after his 15.333 on the horse, almost coming off the apparatus.
Advertisement
Between routines Verniaiev pulled the hoodie of his tracksuit up around his head, as if trying to keep out the expectations that were building around him.
Coming into the high bar, both Verniaiev’s and Uchimura’s final event of the six-event circuit, Uchimura needed to ace his routine and hope Verniaiev had some blemishes. The crowd groaned when the score was revealed, though Verniaiev shrugged his shoulders as if to say “what can you do?” 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.
While other gymnasts have won more medals and more golds, most notably Belarus’ Vitaly Scherbo – who bagged a record six golds at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics – no one has dominated the sport or maintained their levels of excellence for as long as the Japanese.
Britain’s Max Whitlock took bronze. American Sam Mikulak recovered from a fall on vault to rally to seventh.
Ultimately, Uchimura deserved the gold, the 22-year-old Ukranian said. 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. The 27-year-old already has the artfully mussed hair and winning smile of a manga hero; and as he proved here, once again, his action skills are unsurpassed. It offered proof to the judges the Japanese could come through when it mattered. Ukraine qualified for the team final but basically gave up when Maksym Semiankiv couldn’t participate in the finals due to injury.
Verniaiev shrugged off the decision and insisted his team did not tank on goal so he could prep for the all-around.
He looked well prepared, taking the lead through two rotations and answering every time it seemed Uchimura threw down a challenge.
Uchimura nailed his vault despite a small hop back on landing, scoring a highest 15.566 of the night. “He’s the Michael Phelps of gymnastics”. His superb 16.1 on parallel bars – his legs straight as pencils during his handstands – gave him a commanding lead going into the final event on high bar. Verniaiev took a slightly different tact.
He admits that he may not be able to win a third all-around title in Tokyo.
Advertisement
Uchimura performed in all six events in the preliminary round and the team all-around final.
