All-Japan Gymnastics All-Around Championships 2024: Preview, schedule and how to watch live
Who will join Hashimoto Daiki at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games?
That is the question Japanese gymnasts will be facing for the next month starting on Thursday (11 April) at the All-Japan All-Around Championships at Takasaki Arena in Gunma Prefecture.
Hashimoto has been given a free pass for the Games this summer as the defending men’s Olympic all-around champion and winner of the last two World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.
Fair or not, the 22-year-old does give Japan’s best shot at retaining the all-around throne held by the country since London 2012 by Hashimoto and his predecessor Uchimura Kohei, the GOAT of male gymnastics.
His peers though will have to secure their Olympic quota the hard way through the All-Japans and the 16-19 May NHK Trophy - the crown jewel of Japanese gymnastics featuring only the top 30 men and 23 women from the All-Japans.
Hashimoto is the reigning three-time champion of the All-Japans, the first man to win three in a row since Uchimura won 10 consecutive titles from 2008 to 2017. He will be the undisputed favourite to repeat.
Watanabe Hazuki - 2022 world champion on the balance beam - won the women’s crown last year but tore her left ACL during practice in August. She is on the entry list this week but it remains to be seen what kind of form she will be in.
Runner-up to Watanabe last year despite competing with a stress fracture in her right heel, Miyata Shoko, the two-time defending NHK Trophy champion, will be tipped to win her first title. It’s now or never for the 19-year-old new face of Japanese female gymnastics, who is being counted on to lead the women's team at the Games this summer.
*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.
All-Japan Gymnastics All-Around Championships 2024 - Schedule
*All times Japan Standard Time.
Thursday, 11 April
10:50-20:24 - Women's qualifications
Friday, 12 April
11:30-19:20 - Men's qualifications
Saturday, 13 April
14:55-17:25 - Women's final
Sunday, 14 April
11:50-14:30 - Men's final
After finishing runner-up the last two years, Miyata Shoko is eyeing her first all-around crown - and Paris 2024.
All-Japan Gymnastics All-Around Championships 2024 - How to watch live
The finals will be broadcast and streamed live in Japan on NHK and NHK+. The qualifications will not be aired.