Japan’s Shinnosuke Oka wins men’s all-around title; reigning Olympic champion Daiki Hashimoto fails

PARIS (AP) — Shinnosuke Oka of Japan won the men’s all-around gymnastics title at the Paris Olympics on Wednesday, beating the two biggest favorites in a thrilling contest.

The former junior world champion won with a total of 86.832 points, ahead of Zhang Boheng and Xiao Ruoteng, both of China, to claim his second gold medal in three days at his first Olympic Games.

Reigning champion Daiki Hashimoto of Japan fell during his riding routine and finished sixth. Despite Hashimoto’s troubles, it was another good night for Japan, who pulled off a remarkable turnaround in the final minute of the team final on Monday to beat China on the final rotation.

Along with Hashimoto, Zhang was the other top contender, but he had a slow start on the floor exercise, which cost him the gold despite a strong finish. Zhang dominated the qualifying ahead of the 20-year-old Oka and Hashimoto.

Oka, who won the junior world title at 15, took full advantage of the favorites’ mistakes. He performed a solid pommel horse routine to take the lead after two rotations, then pulled off a prodigious vault. He was equally impressive on the two remaining events, the parallel bars and the beam.

Zhang dominated qualifying, ahead of Oka and Hashimoto.

The trio started in the lead pack. Hashimoto came out of the blocks with an excellent floor routine, alternating clean passes and stuck landings. Zhang had a shaky start, bouncing on the mat after landing on his hands and knees on his second pass.

The unusual mistake left him more than a point behind his Japanese rival. But it was Hashimoto’s turn to falter as he fell from the horse after losing his balance. Hashimoto put his hands behind his head in frustration, finished his routine and then received a massage on the same right shoulder that had seemed to bother him during qualifying.

Zhang also appeared to be suffering from a physical problem and received regular massages on his left arm throughout the evening.

He fought hard until the end, scoring a 15.300 on parallel bars to get him back in contention, and capping off his night with a 14.633 on the high bar. It was too little, too late, and he lost the gold medal by 0.233 points.

Hashimoto and Zhang have built a fierce rivalry over the past three years and were expected to be the main characters on Wednesday. Zhang was the 2021 world all-around champion, ahead of Hashimoto, who claimed the world title by beating Zhang the following year. But it was Oka, recently back on top, who stole the spotlight, delivering Japan a fourth straight Olympic all-around title.

There were no athletes from the Russian superpower team due to the war in Ukraine.

The women’s all-around final will take place on Thursday. Simone Biles and her American teammate Suni Lee will become the first two Olympic all-around champions to compete in the competition.