On Monday, Shinnosuke Oka won his third gold medal of the Olympics, becoming the most decorated male gymnast of the Paris Games. Following on from his victories in the team and all-around events, the 20-year-old Okayama Prefecture native went into the horizontal bar final full of confidence. It turned out to be a somewhat bizarre competition, though, with five of the eight finalists falling. As another gymnast hit the deck, BBC commentator Craig Heap exclaimed, “I don’t believe it. What are we seeing in this high bar final?” Viewers were also stunned by what was happening, with some wondering whether the arena was cursed.
Oka didn’t mind, though, as he landed on his feet. His score of 14.533 would only have been good enough for a bronze in Tokyo three years ago. In Paris, it won him the gold ahead of Colombia’s Ángel Barajas. China’s Zhang Boheng and Tang Chia-hung from Chinese Taipei shared the bronze. Oka is the first Japanese gymnast since Sawao Kato in 1972 to top the podium three times at a single Olympics. He also picked up a bronze in the parallel bars competition that took place earlier in the day. That event was won by China’s Zou Jingyuan ahead of Ukraine’s Illia Kovtun.
Wrestler Kenichiro Fumita Advances to the Final
In wrestling, Kenichiro Fumita defeated Kyrgyzstan’s Zholaman Sharshenbekov to reach his second successive Olympic final in the 60kg division. He now faces Cao Liguo from China in the gold medal match on Tuesday. Three years ago, Fumita missed out on gold after losing to Cuba’s Luis Orta. “I’ll do my best in the next match so that people will say that I’m really strong,” said Fumita after the semifinal. In other wrestling news, Nonoka Ozaki lost to Tokyo Olympics bronze medalist Meerim Zhumanazarova of Kyrgyzstan in the quarterfinal stage. She still has a chance of a bronze medal in the repechage round. There was also disappointment for Japan’s men’s volleyball team, who threw away a 2-0 lead in their 3-2 quarterfinal loss to Italy.
