It looked like Japan’s chance had gone. Going into the final apparatus — the horizontal bar — China had a significant lead of 3.267. Barring anything dramatic happening, they would be taking home their first men’s team all-around artistic gymnastics gold since 2012.
The Japanese gymnasts had to focus on their own routines and hope China slipped up. Takaaki Sugino and Shinnosuke Oka both did their bit with impressive scores of 14.566 and 14.433.
For China, Xiao Ruoteng landed on both knees and received 13.433 points, his lowest score of the day. Then up stepped Su Weide. He fell from the horizontal bar not just once, but twice, scoring just 11.60. Suddenly, the Japanese team were back in with a chance.
Japan’s Captain Delivers
All eyes were then on Daiki Hashimoto. The team captain and talisman. A double gold medalist at the Tokyo Games and three-time individual world champion, he is known to thrive under pressure. This time, however, it felt a little different.
Up to that point, Hashimoto hadn’t looked like himself in Paris. He had already failed to qualify for the final in the horizontal bar competition, an event in which he was the defending champion. For the team, he also seemed a little out of sorts and had earlier fallen during his pommel horse routine.
When it really mattered, though, he delivered. His performance on the horizontal bar was the kind we’d grown to expect from the man who has been labeled as the heir apparent to Kohei Uchimura. Hashimoto’s score of 14.566 meant Zhang Boheng needed 15.265 points just to tie. He did all he could, but ultimately, his score of 14.733 wasn’t enough.
A Special Moment for Japan’s Gymnastics Team
The champions from 2016 had regained the title they lost to ROC three years earlier. It was a special moment for the Japanese team of Hashimoto, Sugino, Oka, Kazuma Kaya and Wataru Tanigawa, who all celebrated widely.
“The moment I fell I thought to myself, ‘Oh no, we’re going to lose the gold again because of me. But when I finished, Sugino and Kaya said to me, ‘Don’t give up. We can still do it,'” Hashimoto told reporters after the final.
