Gymnastics World Cup
Two Japanese better: Hashimoto still in the all-around final
Can still defend his all-around world championship title: Daiki Hashimoto. photo
© Virginia Mayo/AP/dpa
Japan’s gymnastics star Daiki Hashimoto can defend his all-around title at the World Championships in Antwerp despite a limit rule for final participants.
As Japan’s selection coach Hiroaki Sato told the “olympics.org” portal after the qualification, it had already been decided that the Olympic champion would take part in the final, even if he was not the best among the three Japanese all-around athletes. “We already had a meeting because we decided to compete with three gymnasts in the all-around, so things like that could happen,” Sato said.
The all-around Olympic champion from Tokyo came third in the qualification after two of six rounds with 85.432 points and had a good chance of reaching the final of the best 24 six-athletes.
However, since his compatriots Kenta Chiba (85.799) and Kazuma Kaya (85.598) were just ahead of him, the 22-year-old actually missed the final fight. According to the rules of the world association Fig, only two participants from the same nation are allowed in the finals. According to “olympics.org”, Sato confirmed that Hashimoto and Chiba will now compete in the individual all-around final on October 5th.