All-Japan All-Around Championships 2024: Hashimoto Daiki tops men's qualification: 'I give myself an 8/9 out of 10'
Three-time defending champion Hashimoto Daiki kicked off the Olympic year in style by comfortably topping the men’s qualification at the All-Japan Gymnastics All-Around Championships on Friday (12 April).
Hashimoto was in a league of his own at the Takasaki Arena in Gunma Prefecture where he emerged above a field of 71 with a flawless 88.199.
The double Olympic gold medallist, who has already earned a quota for Paris 2024, was pleased with how things turned out in his season opener.
“I thought I was a little uptight on the parallel bars, a bit nervous,” Hashimoto said. “I would’ve liked to have been more aggressive to start with but played it too safe. But after that with each event, I was able to focus on what I set out to do and stayed locked in all the way to the end on the vault.
“I thought I was pretty good today.”
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Hashimoto: "I can give myself a pat on the back today"
Trailing Hashimoto in second place was Oka Shinnosuke (86.166), followed by Tokyo 2020 Olympian Kaya Kazuma (85.864).
High school senior Tsunogai Tomoharu was a pleasant surprise, staying right on Hashimoto’s tail going into the final stop of the rotation, but a low D-score on the still rings kept him in seventh place for the night. Tsunogai - who goes to school at Hashimoto’s alma mater Ichiritsu Funabashi - is the junior world champion on the horizontal and parallel bars.
However, Hashimoto was a class apart in reaching Sunday’s final as he blasted a 15.100 on the high bar, his signature event. By his account, it was the first time he went mistake-free in All-Japan qualifying since his high school days.
The 22-year-old reiterated that he is not too bothered about a fourth successive championship although he might win one anyway.
“There’s still the final so we don’t know how things will turn out yet,” Hashimoto said. “I’m not sure if the judges really rated my performance or if they went easy on me.
“I probably could’ve performed better but it’s been a while since I hit 88 so I think I can give myself a pat on the back today.
“I usually get one competition in before the All-Japans but this was the first one for me this season. I think it’s the first time since I was in high school that I got through qualifying without making a single mistake.
“So for today, I give myself an 8 or 9 out of 10.”
*As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes' participation at the Paris Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Paris 2024.