Japan’s Oka wins third gold on bar

US great Biles’ bid for a record five gold medals fails after fall

PARIS:

Shinnosuke Oka’s fairytale debut Olympics got even better on Monday as the Japanese gymnast added horizontal bar gold to his team and all-around titles.

The 20-year-old, who also has a bronze in parallel bars for good measure, scored the same 14.533 points as Colombia’s Angel Barajas, but took gold on the strength of his higher execution mark.

However, the US gymnastics great Simone Biles, who led the US women to team gold before claiming the all-around and vault titles, failed in her bid to clinch her fifth gold medal as she was among several finalists to fall off the unforgiving apparatus on Monday.

But the seven-time Olympic gold medallist still has a chance to take her overall tally to eight with a fourth Paris gold in floor exercise later Monday.

China’s Zhang Boheng and Taiwan’s Tang Chia-Hung shared bronze.

The final was marked by several falls and fumbled dismounts, with Tang and in particular Japan’s Takaaki Sugino hitting the deck to gasps from the crowd.

Belying his inexperience, Oka kept his nerve and crucially his grip on the 2.8 metre-high bar to top the standings.

His score was matched by Colombian teenager Barajas, but he was awarded 7.933 for execution compared to Oka’s 8.633. In contrast, Zhang and Tang were inseparable on 13.966 and an identical 7.466 execution mark left them tied for third.

Defending champion from the Tokyo Games, Daiki Hashimoto, failed to qualify for the final.

In a sign of how errors played their part in the 2024 final, Oka’s score in Paris would only have won bronze at the Covid-delayed Games three years ago. Italy’s Alice D’Amato won balance beam gold as a fall doomed US gymnastics great Simone Biles’s bid for a record five gold medals at the Paris Olympics on Monday.