Japan, Uchimura Deliver Olympic Gold in Men’s Gymnastics

“We made a decision to put everything aside”. The brilliant Kohei Uchimura retained his legend as the world’s greatest gymnast on Wednesday, but only after the most severe test of his powers in almost a decade.

Uchimura has now been unbeaten in the all-around since his silver at the 2008 Beijing Games – with seven Olympic titles to go along with his 19 in world championships – including ten world golds.

His third Olympic gold medal puts him two behind his country’s most decorated gymnast in the Games – Takashi Ono – with an individual floor final to follow at Rio 2016 as well as potential crowning glory on home turf in four years’ time.

The Yomiuri ShimbunThe feat lives up to the reputation of Japan’s gymnastics as a traditionally strong sport that has produced outstanding results in past worldwide competitions.

“I proved myself I could hit 6-for-6 in this pressure situation”, said Mikulak, who struggled with consistency in the trials process. “It’s the medal I want to win”. After the first couple events, they were trailing in seventh place, but put themselves right on the cusp of a medal with a strong vault. But when it was money time, the Americans finished in fifth place, just as they did in London.

Asked to comment on the Chinese athletes’ performance, he said he was only focusing on giving his best and did not pay attention to his opponents.

“Since 2009 this event’s title has been remaining with me”. “And Oleg, I’ve been competing with him for years, he’s produced phenomenal results, getting massive scores so I feel very honoured to come third to those”. We fought through everything and there was no giving up. Not for the greatest men’s gymnast of all time.

However, his 14.8 was not enough and finally ended the torture for Uchimura and Great Britain. And he did just that in the team final, erupting with joy after his floor routine in the final rotation secured the gold for Japan. In 2012, the problem was a nightmarish start on pommel horse, typically their weakest event.

Their failure to stick landings meant their hopes of completing a hat-trick of Olympic titles was over long before their final three competitors had mounted the horizontal bar. Uchimura, victor of five medals in London, posted a 15.766 on the floor exercise while Kato tallied a 15.266, putting both near the top of the leaderboard after the first rotation.

“I’m proud of the guys, but we’re obviously upset of the outcome”, said Dalton.