Daiki Hashimoto eyes Los Angeles after surrendering Olympic all-around crown

Paris: Japanese gymnast Daiki Hashimoto wiped away tears and set his sights on the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics after surrendering his all-around gymnastics crown to teammate Shinnosuke Oka in Paris.

A second pommel horse fall in as many days put paid to Hashimoto’s hopes of retaining the title he won in Tokyo, and he had already failed to qualify to defend his horizontal bar gold.

Three years of pressure came to a head as he wept uncontrollably on the Bercy Arena floor, but the 22-year-old was soon envisioning another Olympic campaign, perhaps alongside 20-year-old Oka.

“The domestic level of Japanese gymnastics has improved, and it opens up a new future for us,” he said after finishing sixth.

“(Oka) had an injury that he had to overcome to get here, and I was really moved at how he never gave up. He will continue to improve, and I want to improve myself so that we can compete together in Los Angeles.”

Oka’s victory, ahead of China’s Zhang Boheng and Xiao Ruoteng, gave Japan an unprecedented fourth straight men’s all-around title, extending a run started by Kohei Uchimura’s victories in 2012 and 2016.

Hashimoto, whose Olympic preparations were disrupted by a finger injury, said that he’ll depart Paris proud of his key contribution to Japan’s narrow team triumph over China, Hashimoto coming through on the closing horizontal bar to seal the victory.

“I fought for the team,” he said. “This competition was one that didn’t leave me with any regrets.”

In a gripping battle for gymnastics’ most coveted title, less than a point split the top three going into the last of the six rotations — the horizontal bar.

With the Bercy Arena crowd holding their breath the last to go Zhang, who was set for bronze, produced a huge performance.

That left all eyes trained on the giant screen for his score to see if he had pulled gold out of the bag.

When it finally flashed up, Oka’s face lit up as his internal calculator worked out he had held on by just 0.233 points with an overall points tally of 86.832.

Xiao, silver medallist behind Hashimoto at the Tokyo Games, was a further 0.235 points back.

This was Olympic debutant Oka’s second gold in the space of 48 hours after he helped Japan to the team title at the Paris Games on Monday.