Japan's Daiki Hashimoto edges China's Xiao Ruoteng for men's gymnastics all-around gold
Daiki Hashimoto of Japan performed the top horizontal bar score of the night in the last rotation of the men’s all-around final, allowing him to edge out China’s Xiao Ruoteng and win the gold medal Wednesday night at Ariake Gymnastics Centre.
Hashimoto finished with 88.465 points, to 88.065 for Xiao. Nikita Nagornyy of the Russian Olympic Committee won the bronze with 88.031 points.
Americans Brody Malone of Johnson City, Tenn., and Sam Mikulak of Newport Coast finished 10th and 12th, respectively.
First-time Olympian Malone, who had won the NCAA all-around title as a build-up to winning the all-around crown at the U.S. championships and the Olympic trials, finished with a strong floor exercise routine and had 84.465 points. Mikulak, who sat on the landing of a floor exercise tumbling pass in the sixth and final rotation, finished with 83.164 points.
Each will have one more chance to earn an individual medal. For Mikulak, a three-time Olympian who plans to retire after Tokyo, it will be his last chance to win a medal. Mikulak qualified for the parallel bars final, and Malone qualified for the horizontal bars final.
In addition, Yul Moldauer of the U.S. qualified for the floor exercise final, and teammate Alec Yoder qualified for the pommel horse final as an individual. The American men’s team finished fifth in the team event.
“This experience definitely motivated me a lot,” Malone said. “I want to be a contender for a medal in the next Games, and I want our team to be a contender for a medal.”
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
