Tokyo 2020 men’s finals preview: Japan leads powerhouses, Uchimura falls short of finals

By Mackenzie Brooks | July 25, 2021
Tokyo 2020 men's finals preview: Japan leads powerhouses, Uchimura falls short of finals
Eleftherios Petrounias, Greece (© International Gymnastics Federation)

Gymnastics at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games is officially in full swing following the conclusion of the men’s qualification round. As predicted, the powerhouses are set to battle for gold in the team final with Japan leading China and the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), respectively.

The race between the top three is tight: 0.19 points between Japan and China in first and second, and 0.116 points between China and the ROC in third.

Rounding out the top five is the United States and Great Britain, respectively.

Men’s team final qualifiers: Japan, China and ROC separate themselves from the field

1. Japan – 262.251

2. China – 262.061

3. ROC – 262.061

4. United States – 256.761

5. Great Britain- 256.594

6. Germany – 249.929

7. Switzerland – 249.193

8. Ukraine – 247.492

Hashimoto Daiki led Japan during qualifying with the top all-around score of the entire meet (88.531). The 19-year-old posted a solid day including a first place high bar finish, the only event final he qualified for.

Tokyo 2020: Men’s Artistic Gymnastics Team Final Qualifiers

“Our team is the best we ever had. We are stronger than our team that competed at the Rio Olympics. Passing qualification round in first place really gives other teams pressure,” Hashimoto said after the meet.

Falling shy of Hashimoto by 0.634 points was reigning world all-around champion Nikita Nagornyy (ROC). While Nagornyy was expected to be atop the leaderboard, he still posted an impressive overall performance, including qualifying to vault, floor and high bar finals. He’ll also challenge Hashimoto in the all-around final later this week.

Following behind in third and fourth place are China’s Xiao Ruoteng and Sun Wei, who were a major part of China’s second place finish. Xiao’s excellent performance included qualifying to floor and parallel bars finals, while Sun picked up a pommel horse berth.

Sixth-place qualifier Artur Dalaloyan will join Nagornyy as the second ROC all-around finalist, while seventh place Kitazono Takeru will be Japan’s second gymnast.

Dalaloyan, who is still recovering from a torn Achilles suffered in April, was expected to not compete in the all-around out of an abundance of caution. Now, not only will he competing for the all-around title, but he also scored a vault final spot with his second place finish on that event.

China’s Zou Jingyuan posted the best individual score of qualifying with a 16.166 on parallel bars. Gold is his to lose in that event final.

Team USA looking comfortable

Tokyo 2020: Men’s Artistic Gymnastics All-Around Final Qualifiers

The men of Team USA left the arena with smiles on their faces after a solid debut performance.

The four-man team sits in fourth place on the leaderboard, 0.167 points ahead of Great Britain. The U.S. looked good in qualifying but there’s room to improve heading into finals, with the country’s main concerns being Sam Mikulak’s shaky high bars, Yul Moldauer’s parallel bars fall, and Shane Wiskus’ vault flop.

Regardless, the U.S. men have a lot more than team finals to look forward to. Mikulak sits in fifth on parallel bars, as well as 10th in all-around standings. Sitting right above the three-time Olympian in the all-around standings is teammate Brody Malone. Malone, the 2021 U.S. all-around champion, also earned himself a spot in the high bar final.

Moldauer, who started the day shaky on parallel bars, eventually recovered on pommel horse and floor. His 14.866 floor routine earned him a 6th place qualification spot to that final.

Alec Yoder came to Tokyo with one goal, and he’s one step to that goal. Yoder executed an impressive pommel horse routine to earn himself a 15.200, 0.066 points behind the three-way tie for first.

Specialist stars rise and fall in qualifying

Like Yoder, other “one hit wonders” took care of of business during qualifications.

Defending Olympic still rings champion, Eleftherios Petrounias (GRE), delivered a difficult routine on his one and only event, scoring a 15.333 to lead the competition.

“I have the goal of being back-to-back Olympic champion. It’s not easy in gymnastics, but I have kids in my mind,” the reigning Olympic champion said. “I would love to make history here and have something to show my babies when they are grown up.”

Tokyo 2020: Men’s Artistic Gymnastics Event Final Qualifiers

Samir Ait Said of France also delivered an impressive rings routine, especially considering the near career-ending leg injury he suffered at the Rio Games in 2016. He qualified in third place.

The competition between Ireland’s Rhys McClenaghan and Chinese Taipei’s Lee Chih Kai was everything and more on pommel horse. The two gymnasts are tied for first place with an identical 15.266, alongside Kameyama Kohei of Japan.

2016 pommel horse champion Max Whitlock (GBR) suffered a form break but still scored a 14.900 to qualify fifth . Whitlock did, however, miss the chance to defend his floor title.

Artem Dolgopyat of Israel shook up the competition on floor, where he beat out Nikita Nagornyy for the first place ranking.

The Philippine’s Carlos Yulos was expected to be in the floor conversation along with Dolgopyat and Nagornyy, but after a rocky routine with under-rotated passes and putting a hand to the ground, Yulos will not make the floor final or have the chance to bring home his nation’s first-ever Olympic medal.

An even more shocking elimination came on high bar when reigning back-to-back all-around champion Kohei Uchimura fell on a relatively simple skill after hitting his opening releases. Uchimura began his routine with hit after hit, before eventually losing his grip on his Stalder 1.5.

With that being the only event he was pursuing this Games, the 32-year-old gymnastics legend might have performed on the international stage for the final time.

“I couldn’t perform what I practiced,” Uchimura said. “In the last three Olympic Games I could… but I couldn’t do that at these.”

Gymnasts supporting gymnasts

The men will take the stage once again on Monday, July 26 at 6 a.m. ET for the team final. Be on the lookout for our live blog. Plus, see the full Tokyo 2020 Olympic schedule here, and continue to follow along with GymNow on all our social channels for the latest!