Recapping Japan’s gold medal performance in the men’s team all-around competition at the Rio Olympics.
Related Story: 2016 Rio Olympics medal count: Day 2 standings
MEDAL RESULT | Men's team all-around
Japan came from behind to beat Russia in a surprising men’s gymnastics team all-around final on Day 3 of the 2016 Rio Olympics.
After winning the qualification round, China looked to be the favorites to take home the gold in the finals. After a solid floor exercise, You Hao scored a 14.400 on the pommel horse and fell on the rings to put the Chinese in an early hole.
Team USA’s outside hopes for a medal took a big blow in the first rotation. After an excellent qualifying round that included a win in the floor exercise, Sam Mikulak landed out of bounds twice in his finals floor routine and earned a score of 14.866. Danell Leyva also slipped on his dismount from the pommel horse, as the United States fell to the bottom of the rankings early on and could get no higher than fifth.
Ukraine’s Ihor Radivilov had the most impressive first rotation with a 15.333 on the vault. The Ukrainians would fall well out of medal contention after Maksym Semiankiv failed to begin his high bar routine, costing the team over 13 points.
With China struggling, Russia and Japan emerged as the top contenders for the gold medal. Denis Ablyazin opened up a lead for the Russians with a 15.700 on the rings in the second rotation, while Japan’s strong vault in the third kept it within striking distance.
Outside medal hopefuls Great Britain were in third at the halfway point after a strong vault. Massive underdog Germany was also in the hunt thanks to Fabian Hambuchen’s 15.666 on the horizontal bar.
Russia held the lead with a solid fourth rotation on the parallel bars, including a stunning 15.800 from David Belyavskiy, although Japan was able to make some small progress. Great Britain held serve with a 15.666 from Nile Wilson on the high bar.
After another tough fourth rotation, China was finally able to get going on the parallel bars. Hao put up a 16.166 on the event to put the Chinese in silver medal contention firmly ahead of Great Britian in third.
Finally, Japan was able to move into first after five rotations thanks to a tremendous team showing on the horizontal bars. With only the floor exercise left to go for both, the Japanese led Russia 226.895 to 226.687.
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Defending floor gold medalist Kenzo Shirai put on the best individual performance of the day on the floor, scoring a 16.133. Russia needed to average a 15.800 to catch Japan, but settled for silver after Belyavskiy recorded a 14.566. China took bronze with a solid horizontal bar, losing out to Russia by just .331, as fourth-place Great Britain struggled on the pommel horse.
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