Gymnastics: People’s Republic of China soars past Japan in men’s qualifying at Paris 2024; three teams vying for bronze
The People’s Republic of China took its first step to claiming men’s gymnastics team gold at the Olympic Games Paris 2024, as they pushed past reigning world champions Japan in Saturday’s (27 July) qualifying round. China last won gold in the event at London 2012.
After two of three groups, China earned a 263.028 to sit atop the standings, some 2.434 ahead of Japan’s 260.594 total. Great Britain is third at 256.561.
Much of China's massive margin came from a pristine performance from 2021 world all-around champion Zhang Boheng who bested the field with an 88.597 total. Japan’s Oka Shinnosuke (86.865) and reigning world and Olympic champ Hashimoto Daiki (85.064) are more than a point-and-a-half back in second and third, respectively.
Boheng was impressive across the board with no score lower than the 14.333 he posted on the pommel horse in the opening rotation. His stylish horizontal bar routine, which included two full-twisting, double flipping catch-and-release moves, scored 15.133 to lead the standings.
For Team Japan, Oka was an Olympic debutant competing with the poise of a veteran. That doesn't mean he was as cool and calm as he appeared.
"I was really nervous [before the competition]. I had never experienced the atmosphere before, so even if I tried to calm down, I couldn’t," he told Olympics.com afterward. "But now, I think like I did it today, I could do much better [in the finals]."
Hashimoto struggled in two consecutive rotations, first coming up extremely short and falling on his horizontal bar dismount, the event on which he struck gold at Tokyo 2020, and then on the floor exercise where he stumbled through a few landings. He scored just 13.733 on both.
"I don’t want to make excuses, but I felt heavy in my body while performing today," he told Olympics.com. "It was about preparation which didn’t work."
Great Britain, Ukraine, U.S. set for bronze medal clash in final
The first session saw bronze medal favourites Great Britain and the United States, squaring off with GB coming out on top 256.561 to 253.229. Ukraine slipped ahead of the Americans in the second group with a 253.893.
Jake Jarman led the Brits in the all-around with standout routines on the floor exercise (14.966) and vault (15.166).
Three-time Olympic champion Max Whitlock delivered a 15.166 on the pommel horse, advancing him to the apparatus final where he will have a chance at an unprecedent third-straight-title on the event.
“I'm really pleased with that. I try not to focus on the scores too much,” he said afterward. “I know it's hard to, but I think with my job and what I'd done on the pommel, I was mega pleased.”
Rio 2016 Olympic parallel bars champion Oleg Verniaiev impressed for Ukraine, putting up massive 15.033 and 15.266 scores on the pommel horse and parallel bars, respectively.
“It was good for a warm-up. Now, we know what we need to do in the final,” he said. “We need to choose who competes, maybe with risk, maybe with a little bit lower difficulty and no risk.”
The Americans were led by reigning World all-around bronze medalist Fred Richard, but it was his University of Michigan teammate Paul Juda who beat all expectations coming in to find himself headed to the men’s all-around final.
“This is the best day of my life,” he started each interview by saying during several stops in the mixed zone, before becoming emotional with Olympics.com, telling us that simply competing all six events in the qualifying round in Paris would have been enough for him.
“To be able to now do it in finals is just going to be a heck of an experience,” said Juda. “And whatever placement I finish, I'm going to be walking around with that - even if it's 24th - I'm going to be walking around that for the rest of my life."