UCHIMURA Kohei's Tokyo 2020 campaign ends after failing to qualify for horizontal bar final

UCHIMURA Kohei's Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games is over.

The three-time Olympic champion will not qualify for the men's horizontal bar final on Saturday (24 July) after falling on an intricate pirouetting element. Uchimura's 13.866 point placed him well out of the top eight needed to advance with a final subdivision of gymnasts set to compete later in the day.

"I couldn't perform what I have practiced at this competition. That's how I simply think," Uchimura said afterward through translation. "In the last three Olympic Games, I could perform what I could practice, but not this competition."

"King Kohei" was the two-time defending Olympic all-around champion. He had qualified for Tokyo 2020 as an individual, not as part of the Team event, and opted to compete on only the high bar at the Games.

His specialisation was a decision sparked by necessity. Uchimura has been marred by injuries since winning the Rio Games. An ankle injury during qualifications at the 2017 World Championships ended his reign as all-around champion after taking a record six-straight World titles and two Olympic golds.

Then, he was limited to four events at the 2018 Worlds and missed the 2019 edition all together. But with the Games headed to his home country, he pushed on, and in 2020, he told media he finally felt pain free.

At 32, a fifth Olympic Games seems unlikely.

"I don't know. Let me think about it when I go back to the accommodation," he said of his competitive future."But I have experienced the bottom of the bottom when I wasn't doing well. So I am not as disappointed as I expected."

Coming into the Games, Uchimura's sky-high scores at the Japanese Olympic trial events marked him as a gold-medal favourite on the high bar. But in Wednesday's podium training session, he looked off, struggling with a stalder Rybalko, the pirouettign element that he would ultimately crash out on Saturday.

One of the faces of these Tokyo Games, Uchimura struggled again during the one-touch warmup just prior to today's qualifying competition, slipping off on a double-twisting, double back flip over the high bar. His fall created tension among the few on hand at the Ariake Gymnastics Centre. It was the only element he attempted in the warmup, choosing not to remount after missing the skill.

Minutes later, his routine was off to a brilliant start as he caught the release move he had missed in the warm up with ease. But, it was the stalder Rybalko that gave him issues in training that brought him to grief once again. He was too close to the bar on the pirouette and couldn't hang on as he swung through the bottom, flying off to the mat and ending his Tokyo medal chances.

He remounted and finished his routine, walking off the podium without much emotion. At any other Games, Uchimura would have likely been the recipient of raucous cheers. Fans would have been on their feet, honouring the legendary career of one of the greatest men's gymnasts in history.

Instead, with fans absent in Tokyo due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Uchimura walked off the floor alone and in silence, a somber end to the Games that only minutes earlier held so much promise.