Daiki Hashimoto continued on his path to greatness as he recovered from a difficult start to defend his all-around title at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Antwerp.
While a solid performance led Ukraine’s Illia Kovtun to silver, the final descended into chaos at the close. China’s Sun Wei, Kenta Chiba of Japan and Frederick Richard of the United States all began their final routines with a great chance to win a medal, but all three fell, with Richard becoming the first Black American man to win a world all-around medal.
Despite a bold, impressive performance as he chased down a medal throughout the night, Great Britain’s Jake Jarman ran out of steam towards the end and finished in 13th position. A typically solid performance from James Hall, the veteran of the British squad, yielded an eighth place finish.
Two years ago in Tokyo, Hashimoto became the youngest men’s gymnast to win the Olympic all-around title at 19 years old, which he followed up by winning the world title in Liverpool last year. In Antwerp, he had endured his struggles. Hashimoto actually failed to qualify for the final on merit after finishing in third place behind his two countrymen. Only two gymnasts per country can qualify but as his team’s focal point, though, the Japanese agreed beforehand he would compete in the final regardless of results.
Hashimoto stumbled through his floor routine, finishing the first rotation 14th. From that early setback, though, the 22-year-old moved himself back up the rankings, ending with a nerveless horizontal bar routine.
