Olympic and world champion Hashimoto Daiki withdraws from World University Games all-around final after fall on pommel horse

Olympic and world champion Hashimoto Daiki of Japan was forced to withdraw from the men's artistic gymnastics all-around final at the Summer World University Games Chengdu on Friday (4 August 2023) after suffering a scary fall.

Hashimoto, who was renewing his rivalry with the People's Republic of China's 2021 world champion Zhang Boheng, had started with a wobble on the floor exercise after sitting down on one of his tumbling passes, scoring roughly 1.5 points lower than he had in qualification.

But it was the second rotation on pommel horse that undid the Olympic champion.

After a strong set of flares and an otherwise solid routine, Hashimoto's handstand dismount went awry. The Japanese lost his hold on the horse and tumbled off to the side, landing awkwardly on the mat, seemingly knocking his head into the base of the pommel horse.

While the Japanese was able to remount the apparatus to complete his dismount, he walked off the mat holding his temple.

Even Zhang looked shocked at his rival's misfortune, immediately going over to Hashimoto to wish him well. It was later announced that Hashimoto had withdrawn from the remainder of the all-around competition.

Hashimoto is also qualified for apparatus finals on floor, pommel horse, parallel bars, and horizontal bar, although it is unclear if he will withdraw from those finals too.

Zhang ended up with the all-around gold medal with a score of 86.733, a fall of his own on the last rotation – horizontal bar – not affecting his final position. Chinese teammate Shi Cong won silver with 86.396 points, while Japan's Kaya Kazuma took bronze on 84.098.

The next major competition is the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships 2023 in Antwerp, Belgium, next month.