Daiki Hashimoto conjured up some late magic to propel Japan to Olympic men’s team gymnastics gold on Monday as arch-rivals China stumbled with the title within their grasp.
It was a record-extending eighth team title for Japan and made up for narrowly missing out to Russia for gold at the Tokyo Games. China took silver and the United States bronze, ahead of Britain.
China were favourites after bossing the qualifying and, streets ahead, only had to hold their nerve in the last of the six rotations for victory.
But China’s Su Weide fell twice on the horizontal bars, leaving an unexpected opening for Japan to overhaul them on the line.
And in a nail-biting denouement that had the crowd at the Bercy Arena on the edge of their seats, Hashimoto, the all-around and horizontal bar champion in Tokyo three years ago, finally hit form.
After a quiet night including a slip-up on the pommel horse, the 22-year-old clicked into gear to produce a superb performance and get Japan home by just 0.532 points with an overall points tally of 259.594.
They take the crown that was left vacant because of the absence of Russia due to the invasion of Ukraine.
Hashimoto, whose nickname is “Mr Infinite Stamina”, said: “I had a lot of things on my mind, but when I got onto the stage, I just concentrated on my performance.
“I felt the rest of the team was all behind me, they had my back. They pushed me on to the stage.
“I was almost crying before the performance.”
Hashimoto was joined on the top of the podium by teammates Kazuma Kaya, Shinnosuke Oka, Wataru Tanigawa and Takaaki Sugino.
‘Great regret’
Su and his Chinese team were distraught at their near miss.
“I think today taught me a big lesson, it’s of great regret,” he said.
“I feel sorry for my teammates. Because of my errors we didn’t win the gold medal.”
A downcast Zhang Boheng added: “Regrettably in the last part we didn’t perform well.
“We are frustrated. Up to then we have done very well.”
Up to the final drama, China appeared to be in firm control over the world champions.
After a sluggish start, the Zhang-led Chinese leapt into the lead at the midway stage after Zou Jingyuan, Zhang and Liu Yang showed some cast-iron crosses and assured handstand control on the rings.
Japan were lagging in fifth.
Ukraine emerged briefly as China’s main challengers after the fourth rotation, courtesy of fine parallel bars routines from Illia Kovtun and Oleg Verniaiev.
Zou had produced a huge score in qualifying on the parallel bars and the champion in Tokyo did not disappoint with 16.000 to push China over three points clear, ahead of the closing rotation.
Japan were going to need a herculean effort from Hashimoto, the defending champion on the horizontal bar, if they were to usurp the Chinese.
And he came up with the goods, his performance combined with Su’s two faux pas earning Japan the gold they last won at Rio 2016.
This was the first of 14 artistic gymnastics titles on the line in Paris, with Simone Biles’ United States team in the spotlight on Tuesday.