Japan won the eighth Olympic gold for the men’s gymnastics team

One of the legendary sports rivalries, one that they have maintained for decades China and Japanese for the supremacy of men’s gymnastics, wrote a new page this Monday in Bercy with the victory of the Japanese team in the men’s team final, after a contest with a thousand and one alternatives.

The fixed bar exercise decided everything: first because of the mistake of the Chinese Weide Su, who fell twice and threw away the lead of 3,267 points that his team had, and then because of a new seat on that apparatus from Olympic champion and world. Daiki Hashimotowhich refloated the team.

Japan finished with 259.594 points, 0.532 behind China and 1.801 behind the United States, on its first podium since a bronze medal in Beijing 2008. The Japanese and Americans celebrated, the Chinese slumped after letting go of a victory they never had. won since 2012. Japan It raised the all-time record of Olympic gold medals for men’s teams to eight.

Great Britain, Ukraine, Italy, Switzerland and Canada completed the qualification for the final. The Tokyo 2020 gold-winning team, Russia, is not competing in Paris due to suspension.

Rarely has the outcome of an Olympic competition been as uncertain as the result in Paris. With two devices missing, the Japanese were fourth, but they ended up with gold; The Ukrainians were second, but finished outside the podium; and in the absence of one, the Chinese had only to secure their exercises to take the crown, but they were left without it.

The Japanese team that was declared champion consisted of Daiki Hashimoto, Kazuma Kaya, Shinnosuke Oka, Wataru Tanigawa and Takaaki Sugino.

China and Japan shared the rotation, with the earth as the starting device.

Chinese Ruoteng Xiao put the first reference on the scoreboard with 13.966, something short for his execution. But the score was invalidated five minutes later, as soon as Hashimoto stepped off the mat and nailed an exercise that totaled 14,633 points. The Tokyo 2020 champion looks poised to take the lead for gold.

The performance of young Oka, who earned the same grade as Hashimoto, gave the impression that Japan would be the team to beat. Even at the end of the first round Great Britain temporarily led the classification (43,332), after going through what was its best equipment, the pommel horse.

Japan (43,266), Canada, Ukraine, the United States and China occupy the following positions, with Switzerland and Italy a little behind. Ukrainian Oleg Verniaiev was the first to approach the legendary two-week barrier with 14.833.

The Japanese group exuded a sense of unity similar to that of the Americans, often being the most expressive in their celebrations. They celebrated each exercise with a jump of joy and raised their fists and praised each note as if it were the last. ‘The king’ Kohei Uchimira, gold in 2012 and 2016, blessed from his position as an NHK commentator.

But the devices did not understand the favorites and Hashimoto got his hands on the pommel horse and fell to the ground. It started with some dizzying grinds, but never got past 13,100. Thank God for Japan that Sugino opened up room for error with his 14.866. Unlike in the qualifying round, in the final there is no grade that can be discarded. Japan lost the lead.

The Americans’ pass on the jump put them in the lead after that second device, with an 86.764 and a 0.666 margin over the Chinese and 1.166 over the Japanese. Canada, Great Britain and Switzerland, next. Ukraine fell to the last place.

In the rings, neither Ruoteng nor Hashimoto were chosen by their respective coaches to present exercises. China did better: Jigyuan Zou’s 14.933 and Boheng Zhang’s 14.833 left their rivals with little choice, but Yang Liu, the specialty’s world champion, broke the night’s record with dazzling 15.500: the rings were not They were quieter even when they hung out alone in the pavilion in the middle of the night.

After that exhibition, China reached the halfway point of the first-place contest with a margin of 1,201 over the United States, which made an amazing step in parallels, with Frederick Richard as the best man, 14,566. That left Great Britain at 2,935 and Ukraine at 3,133, which jumped. Japan found itself in an unthinkable fourth place at the start of the competition.

Two Asian teams faced off in the vault, the only apparatus in which there was no Japanese gymnast in the final of the last world championship. China confirmed its first place, with a new immediate chaser, Ukraine, at only 0.433. Similarities with Oleg Verniaiev, 30, Olympic runner-up in 2016 and left out of Tokyo 2020 for doping, directly pushed his team into the fight for gold.

America’s confidence grew, and Richard grew even more. His bar, a series of looses with 6.4 difficulty, was one of the moments of the night. They dropped to third place, but only at 0.935, and kept Japan at bay (at 1.799).

The fifth round changed everything again, except for the increasingly stable Chinese leadership. Olympic champion Jingyuan Zou’s huge 16,000 points on the parallel bars was the definitive life insurance for his team, while Japan returned to second position, at 3,267, a huge distance even from the bar’s point of view, the its best specialty and Hashimoto’s, one of the best in history.

At the back, the United States maintained its position on the podium against Ukraine.

But the bar came. Two falls by Weide Su made the board jump. China’s wide margin has disappeared. His 11,600 put the gold back within Japan’s reach. Hashimoto climbed the bar and tamed him again. Boheng Zhang closed out the tournament, forcing his way past 15th, but he remained at 14,733. Japan was crowned champion.