Shinnosuke Oka won the men's all-around gymnastics title at the Paris Olympics on Wednesday, upsetting the two main favorites to extend Japan's dominance in a final that came down to the wire.
The former junior world champion whose career was put on hold by a serious knee injury two years ago. He edged Zhang Boheng and Xiao Ruoteng, both of China, to claim his second gold medal in three days at his first Olympics, by just 0.233 points.
Despite Hashimoto's struggles, it was another sweet evening for Japan, which produced a remarkable last-minute turnaround in the team final Monday to beat China on the last rotation.
Zhang was the world champion in all-around in 2021 ahead of Hashimoto, who claimed the world title by defeating Zhang the next year.
But it was Oka, who recently resurfaced at the top, who grabbed the spotlight and kept his head cool in the final rotation on the horizontal bar to give Japan a fourth straight Olympic all-around title.
Oka, who won the junior world title when he was 15 but then tore his right ACL, made the most of the favorites' mistakes.
He delivered a solid pommel horse routine to surge into the lead after two rotations, then stuck a marvel vault.
Zhang had dominated qualifying ahead of Oka and Hashimoto. The trio started in the leaders' group.
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