Daiki Hashimoto conjured up some late magic to help Japan win Olympic men’s team gymnastics gold on Monday as arch-rivals China stumbled with the title within their grasp.
It was a record-extending eighth team title for Japan. China took silver and the United States bronze, ahead of Britain.
China were favourites after bossing the qualifying and, streets ahead, only had to hold their nerve in the last of the six rotations to claim their first title since 2012.
But China’s Su Weide fell twice on the horizontal bars, leaving an unexpected opening for Japan to overhaul them on the line.
And in a nail-biting denouement that had the crowd at the Bercy Arena on the edge of their seats, Hashimoto, the all-around and horizontal bar champion from the Tokyo Games, finally hit form after a quiet night.
He produced a superb performance to get Japan home by just 0.532 points with an overall points tally of 259.594 to take the title left vacant because of the absence of Russia due to the invasion of Ukraine.
Hashimoto was joined on the top of the podium by teammates Kazuma Kaya, Shinnosuke Oka, Wataru Tanigawa and Takaaki Sugino.
Up to the final drama, China appeared to be in firm control over the world champions.
After a sluggish start, the Zhang Boheng-led Chinese leapt into the lead at the midway stage after Zou Jingyuan, Zhang and Liu Yang showed some cast-iron crosses and assured handstand control on the rings.
Japan, silver medallists from the Tokyo Games, were lagging in fifth.
Ukraine emerged briefly as China’s main challengers after the fourth rotation, courtesy of fine parallel bars routines from Illia Kovtun and Oleg Verniaiev.
Zou had produced a huge score in qualifying on the parallel bars and the champion in Tokyo did not disappoint with 16.000 to push China over three points clear, ahead of the closing rotation.
Japan were going to need a herculean effort from Hashimoto, the defending champion on the horizontal bar, if they were to usurp the Chinese.
And the 22-year-old came up with the goods, his performance combined with Su’s two faux pas earning Japan the gold they last won in Rio 2016.
This was the first of 14 artistic gymnastics titles on the line in Paris, with Simone Biles’ United States team in the spotlight on Tuesday.
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