Oka gives Japan 2nd gold medal in men's gymnastic all-around final

PARIS - Shinnosuke Oka of Japan is the new Olympic all-around champion.

Oka edged China's Zhang Boheng to win the men's individual all-around final and give Japan their second gold medal in gymnastics at Paris 2024 on Wednesday.

Japan now becomes the first country to take four straight all-around titles after Uchimura Kohei's 2012 and 2016 gold medals and Daiki Hashimoto's Tokyo win. Japan also won the men's team final two days ago.

"I'm very happy to have won two gold medals," said Oka. "But today we've seen a lot of gymnasts having mistakes. They weren't able to perform in their best form. If they were, and if everyone was in good condition, it would have been a better competition."

The 20-year-old performed consistently and led for most of the competition, scoring a total 86.832 points, 0.233 ahead of Zhang who took the silver medal. Zhang, the 2021 world all-around champion, now has two Olympics medals, included a team silver in Paris.

"Maybe I didn't stand on the highest podium," Zhang said. "But over these 24 years, I feel like I've been constantly overcoming myself. It hasn't been easy for me, and I didn't expect to perform so well on the horizontal bar in the end."

Xiao Ruoteng of China, the Tokyo all-around silver medalist, took the bronze with 86.364. It was his fifth Olympic medal overall after the team silver, together with one silver and two bronze medals from Tokyo 2020.

Hashimoto of Japan failed to defend his title and fell to sixth place. He came off the pommel horse, a repeat of his missteps in the team final, scoring a low 12.966 and at one point placed as low as 15th. He never quite recovered to be in contention for a medal.

Oka, a 2019 world junior champion, had won the NHK Trophy men's all-around title, Japan's Olympic trial event, but had few international appearances due to injuries. Hashimoto had not competed in the NHK competition.

Two years his senior, Hashimoto held Oka in a victory celebration after the results were announced, hinting that Japan now has a new gymnastics superstar.

Finally, on the final apparatus, all eyes were on Zhang as he flipped and turned on the high bar. With minor miscues, his solid score of 14.633 fell short of the 14.866 required to overtake Oka.

The 24-year-old went through an early scare and performed well on the rings and parallel bars to climb to third place before the high bar. His blip came in the first apparatus, the floor exercise, and he briefly placed as low as 16th.

Illia Kovtun of Ukraine surged into the lead after Rotation 4 with excellent pommel horse and parallel bars routines, but fell short on the high bar compared with other leading contenders, and ended up fourth.