gymnastics
Uchimura errors take gloss off Japan’s team gold
GLASGOW, Oct 29, (AFP): Kohei Uchimura’s Japan finally toppled China at the world gymnastics championship but Britain warned they were ready to challenge for Olympic gold after taking men’s team silver.
The Japanese scored 270.818 points to take gold after four consecutive silver medals as Britain won their first world men’s team medal with 270.345 and China bronze with 269.959.
It ended Olympic champions China’s 12-year domination of the world team event in which they had won six straight titles.
The much-hyped clash between the Asian giants failed to ignite Glasgow’s Hydro Arena with Japan leading outof-sorts China all the way despite a fall by Uchimura and two by Yusuke Tanaka.
And Britain warned they are ready to challenge for Olympic gold after their historic bronze in London 2012 behind China and Japan.
“This has definitely thrown a spanner in the works being so close to Rio,” said Britain’s Louis Smith.
“There were a few wobbles but to have 18 clean routines is something.”
Compared to Japan and China, the British had no major errors over the six rotations — floor, pommel horse, rings, vault, parallel bars and high bar.
Uchimura, 26, opened on the floor with Kenzo Shirai scoring highest to pull 2.7 points ahead of China from the outset.
The Japanese lead on pommel horse before the Chinese came back strong on rings.
Japan held their lead on the vault and parallel bars despite Tanaka coming unstuck, before also falling from the high bar.
“The team gave me a very important role, but I made mistakes. So it’s my teammates who got the gold medal for us,” said Tanaka, 25. “So I thank all of them for that.” But there was more drama in store when Uchimura, startled by the deafening roar by the crowd on seeing Britain’s Max Whitlock’s score for his final floor routine, also tumbled off the high bar.
“When I did the release skill, the timing was such that the crowd cheered just as I was trying to catch the bar,” said Uchimura.
“The feeling was just like the London Olympics after pommel horse,” referring to the moment where he faltered in the Team Final.
But the Japanese, who lost the title last year by just a tenth of a point, held on to claim their sixth men’s team gold and first since 1978.
Coach Hisashi Mizutori, who won Japan’s last Olympic team gold in 2004, insisted it was a valuable lesson.
“It has been 37 years since the last time we got the gold medal for Japan so we are very happy although we had some big mistakes.
“The Olympics are next year so we need to improve in order to get the gold medal back.” China were also taking stock. “Japan is always a strong competitor but today it was about ourselves,” said Zhang Chenglong.
“This performance is a warning for us before Rio where we hope we can do better.
Three years after their Olympic bronze in London, the British men’s team achieved their first ever podium, a day after their women’s team won a first team bronze.
“China and Japan have dominated for so many years,” said Britain’s Kristian Thomas.
“We have laid down a marker that they are definitely beatable and that the other countries as well can push for the top places.”
Both Russia and the United States had looked as if they would challenge, but finished fourth and fifth respectively in the eight-team final.
Russia lead the vault and were also strong on the parallel bars and pommel horse, but faltered on floor, as the US trailed Japan by 0.1 with two rotations only to slump on pommel horse.