- Japanese teenager follows in Kohei Uchimura’s footsteps
- Sixth- and ninth-place finishes for Britain’s all-around finalists
One of the great hopes of a home Olympics for Japan was the opportunity for the greatest male gymnast of all time, Kohei Uchimura, to receive a victorious sendoff into the night on home soil. That dream died cruelly in its swiftness; a fall on his solitary routine in the qualifying round. But over the past three days of competition, in his place the talent of a new young hope has sprouted to immediately replace him.
In his stead, Daiki Hashimoto has risen to become the Olympic men’s all-around champion at just 19 years old and after a breathless, tight final in which 0.4 pts separated the top three spots.