Japan's men's gymnastics team staged an epic comeback to claim gold ahead of China on Monday, July 29 at the Paris Olympics.
Japan trailed China by more than three points going into the last apparatus and overtook its top rival when China's Weide Su fell twice off the horizontal bar.
Takaaki Sugino, Shinnosuke Oka and Tokyo Olympics all-around champion Daiki Hashimoto powered the comeback with excellent displays on the horizontal bar as Japan won with a margin of just 0.532 points. The United States claimed bronze.
Hashimoto delivered a near-perfect performance on the horizontal bar to score 14.566 and lead Japan to its eighth team gold and first since Rio de Janeiro in 2016. Japan won five straight gold medals from 1960-76.
"It was a scary situation," Hashimoto said, according to Kyodo News. "My performance was going to decide the color of our medal."
The 22-year-old native of Chiba Prefecture added: "As I prepared for my last performance, I heard chants of 'Nippon,' and that gave me a positive mindset. I took a little step on the landing, but it was unbelievable when I got a standing ovation from the crowd."
The Japanese men's gymnastics team also included Kazuma Kaya and Wataru Tanigawa.
Chinese Olympians Regret Falling Short of Gymnastics Goal
China was aiming for its first Olympic title in 12 years and dominated qualifying ahead of Japan, but shaky performances by Su and Ruoteng Xiao quashed its gold medal hopes.
"Today taught me a big lesson," Su said, according to The Associated Press. "It's a big regret. I feel sorry for my senior partners in the team."
Added Su: "They have worked very hard in this cycle, there were a lot of injuries in the buildup, and because of my errors today, we lost the gold medal."
China had been consistent on all apparatuses and took the lead midway through the competition.
In the penultimate rotation, Boheng Zhang posted an impressive 15.100 on the parallel bars and teammate Jingyuan Zou did even better with a rare 16.000.
Gymnastics Drama: Japan's Dynamic Performance on Horizontal Bar
But Japan turned things around with the top score on the horizontal bar, the only apparatus where it finished first.
Russia, which won gold at the Tokyo Games, is not taking part because of its role in the war against Ukraine.
Hashimoto appeared to be dealing with right shoulder discomfort during qualifying. He fell midway through his pommel horse routine but recovered quickly on the vault.
After getting some treatment on the shoulder, he capped the evening with his outstanding performance on the horizontal bar.
"Even though there were some errors in our routines, we kept on motivating each other," Hashimoto told The Associated Press. "I used the passion of my teammates in my final routine on the high bar."
After Hashimoto's turn, Zhang had a chance to put China back in charge but his score was not enough.
"In the last part we did not perform as well as we should have. We end with a silver medal, we are indeed frustrated," Zhang said.
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Author: Jim Armstrong
The author is a longtime journalist who has covered sports in Japan for over 25 years. You can find his articles on SportsLook.
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