PARIS: Daiki Hashimoto turned heartache into unimaginable joy as he overcame a fall from the pommel horse to power Japan to the gold medal, edging China in a nail-biting gymnastics men's team final at the Paris Olympics on Monday.
With Japan left languishing in fifth place at the halfway point of the competition, Hashimoto displayed nerves of steel during his final performance on the horizontal bar as the Asian powerhouse completed an incredible comeback to seal an eighth men's team title at the Games with a total of 259.594. They finished just 0.532 of a point ahead of China.
The United States were also left celebrating their first Olympic team medal since 2008 as they grabbed bronze.
The expected battle between China and Japan looked like it would not materialise after Hashimoto's uncharacteristic fall during the second rotation – and he could barely look up when his lowly pommel horse score of 13.100 was shown on the giant screen in the arena.
"The moment I fell I thought to myself, 'Oh no, we're going to lose the gold again because of me'," said Hashimoto, who was part of the Japanese team that finished second behind Russia at the Tokyo Games.
"But when I finished, (teammates Takaaki) Sugino and (Kazuma) Kaya said to me, 'Don't give up. We can still do it.'"
China were undone by stunning late mistakes, including two falls in quick succession from the high bar by first-time Olympian Su Weide in the final rotation.
"I think it was because of lack of experience," said Chinese rings specialist Liu Yang, who blamed himself for not having sufficiently supported his teammate.
"We came here to win. It was regrettable."
While nerves got the better of China in the final rotation, the Japanese quintet of Hashimoto, Kaya, Sugino, Shinnosuke Oka and Wataru Tanigawa never stopped believing.
Just when it appeared like China had the title in the bag as they led Japan by more than three points going into their final performances on the high bar, Xiao Ruoteng completely botched his dismount by landing on both knees to earn his lowest score of the day of 13.433.
Su then lost his grip twice while attempting release and catch manoeuvres during his routine as fans at Bercy Arena gasped in disbelief. As he came crashing down on the mat, so too did China's gold medal hopes.
The shellshocked look on his teammates said it all as they just could not believe that they had thrown away the title that had been within their grasp with impressive performances during the first five rotations. When Su's score of 11.600 flashed up, Hashimoto knew all he needed to do was to stay on the bar and the title would be Japan's.
The Tokyo 2020 all around champion effectively won Japan the gold with a score of 14.566 on the bar.
Even though China still had one more competitor to go on the bar, Zhang Boheng must have known that his chances of scoring 15.265 points to tie with Japan were slim and so it proved to be. As his score of 14.733 came up, the Japanese gymnasts were left in floods of tears, with some of them collapsing to the ground in pure disbelief at what they had pulled off.
The U.S. men put on a superb performance and locked up the bronze after nailing most of their landings to collect 257.793 points. Britain finished fourth and Ukraine fifth.
"I was like five feet in the air jumping," said American Frederick Richard.
"I was incredibly thankful and just proud of us because we put a lot of work into it and it all paid off."
Russia, who won the team gold at the Tokyo Games three years ago, are barred from competing in Paris due to the country's invasion of Ukraine.
Chinese squad grabbed the lead at the midway point with stellar performance on still rings and looked unbeatable after Zou Jingyuan secured 16.000 on parallel bars.
But the drama that then unfolded left everyone on the edge of their seats. --Reuters.