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Japan win Olympic men's gymnastics team gold / Photo: © AFP
Japan win Olympic men's gymnastics team gold
Daiki Hashimoto conjured up some late magic to help Japan win Olympic men's team gymnastics gold on Monday as arch-rivals China crumbled with the title within their grasp.
For Japan this was a record-extending eighth team title. The United States took bronze ahead of Britain.
China were favourites after bossing qualifying and only had to hold their nerve in the last of the six rotations to claim their first title since 2012.
But China's Su Weide fell twice on the horizontal bars, leaving an unexpected opening for Japan to overhaul them on the line.
And in a nail-biting denouement that had the crowd at the Bercy Arena on the edge of their seats, Hashimoto, the all-around and horizontal bar champion from the Tokyo Games, finally hit form after a quiet night.
He produced a superb performance to get Japan home by just 0.532 points with an overall points tally of 259.594 to take the title left vacant because of the absence of Russia due to the invasion of Ukraine.
This was the first of 14 artistic gymnastics titles on the line at Bercy, with Simone Biles' United States team in the spotlight on Tuesday.
M. Taylor--BTZ
