PARIS (AP) — China and Japan, longtime rivals in men’s gymnastics, may once again face off in a close battle at the Olympics.
The sport’s two biggest powers came out on top in the qualifying rounds at the Bercy Arena on Saturday, with China scoring a team total of 263.028 points, followed closely by Japan with 260.594 points.
Without veteran Sun Wei injured during practice on Thursday, China’s five-member team produced a series of spectacular routines on the rings and parallel bars to establish itself as favorites heading into Monday’s final.
Japan, the reigning world champions, was plagued by some uncharacteristic mistakes from current World and Olympic gold medallist Daiki Hashimoto but still managed to win by a large margin over third-placed Great Britain.
The 22-year-old Hashimoto will have a chance to defend her all-around title but will miss her specialty event, the horizontal bar, after stumbling while dismounting. Hashimoto had been bothered by pain in her right shoulder for much of the afternoon and was treated by a Japan team trainer immediately after completing the rings, but later said she was fine.
Hashimoto is currently third overall with 85.064 points after two subcategories, behind teammate Shinnosuke Oka (86.865) and China’s Zhang Boxeng (88.597).
The scores will be reset for the team final, and the only real question is who will join China and Japan on the podium, with defending champions Russia unable to compete due to the war in Ukraine.
At the 2021 Tokyo Games, Japan lost to Russia by just 0.1 points and finished with the silver medal. A close final Meanwhile, China came back a little later to win the bronze medal.
“It was disappointing,” said Japan’s Kazuma Kaya, “but I continued practicing every day to achieve today’s success. I want to win the gold medal next time (in the team final).”
It’s not just the gold medal that’s at stake: the bronze medal is also up for grabs, but Great Britain made a strong claim by taking the lead in the first event, while a Ukrainian group including the US overcame a nightmare performance on the horizontal bar to overtake the US and move into fourth place with 253.893 points, while the US dropped to fifth place with 253.229 points.
Britain maintains there is no rivalry between it and the United States despite the two teams having competed for places in almost every major international tournament for nearly a decade.
Britain sent a very real, if unspoken, message: they were fully capable of winning a bronze medal to follow up their unexpected win in London 12 years ago.
Jake Jarman’s overall score of 84.897 was just ahead of team-mate Joe Fraser, while Max Whitlock, competing in just his fourth and final Games, overcame nerves to score 15.133 points on the pommel horse to give Great Britain the boost.
“A lot of people have asked me, ‘What’s it like to be ranked higher than the United States?'” Whitlock said. “To be honest, I doubt the question. I think it’s really important that we think about our own work.”
Russia’s absence gives the United States, Great Britain and Ukraine a chance to win medals behind China and Japan in the gold medal race, but Whitlock still downplayed the idea that Russia’s participation would make it impossible for any country outside the sport’s Big Three to win a team medal.
“If they had competed, I think they would have placed highly,” Whitlock said, “so obviously not competing gives us a little bit more of a medal chance, but only a little bit.”
The U.S. men, who were hoping to repeat their bronze medal win at last fall’s world championships, performed less than brilliantly in front of an audience that included First Lady Jill Biden, who applauded U.S. star Frederick Richard’s floor exercise and posed for a photo with a somewhat subdued team after their performance.
Richards called the experience “pretty amazing” but regretted not being able to show Biden a “sleeker” routine after earning 13.833 points, just below the score needed to win a medal in next week’s individual all-around final.
Richard is not alone. The U.S. arrived in Paris hoping to win its first Olympic team medal since the bronze medal in Beijing 16 years ago. That certainly remains a possibility, but Richard and the team will need to improve significantly going forward.
Brody Malone is back From a horrific leg injury She was scheduled to win the U.S. championships in March 2023 and make her second Olympic team in early June, but she fell once on the pommel horse and twice on the horizontal bar.
Malone’s second mistake on the horizontal bar, the high-risk, high-reward event in which she won gold at the 2022 world championships, forced the U.S. to use Asher Hong’s 12.600 score and was one of the reasons the U.S. lost to Great Britain by 3.322 points.
“We certainly weren’t perfect,” U.S. high performance director Brett McClure said, “we made too many mistakes and we feel like we need to improve on some things going into the team final.”
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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-Paris-Olympic-Games
