By Steve Keating
TOKYO (Reuters) – Daiki Hashimoto maintained Japan’s grip on the Olympic men’s gymnastics all-around crown on Wednesday, clinching victory with a spectacular high bar routine.
With ‘King” Kohei Uchimura, Olympic all-around champion in 2012 and 2016, choosing not to defend his title in Tokyo it was left to his heir apparent Hashimoto to step up and the 19-year-old delivered posting a winning point total of 88.465.
Leading going into the final rotation Xiao Ruoteng, the 2017 world all-around champion, had looked poised to reclaim the title for China but instead settled for silver with his team filing an inquiry over what they viewed as a low score.
Russian Nikita Nagornyy, the reigning world all-around champion, took bronze.
(Reporting by Steve Keating in Tokyo. Editing by Christian Radnedge)
