File pix of Hashimoto (2nd from left) in 2024 (Photo by RuinDig/Yuki Uchida)
Daiki Hashimoto took an early and psychologically gratifying lead in the All-Around, reestablishing himself as the favourite for a third consecutive World title.
Even with a fall on Floor Exercise and a close call on Horizontal Bar during his early morning competition session, Hashimoto managed to amass 83.065 points overall, just over half a point ahead of Switzerland’s Noe Seifert at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Jakarta.
“Competition goes so fast — it’s next, next, next,” said Hashimoto, noting that competing in the first subdivision with its early start tired him and his teammates out. The Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion had notes for himself on his routines, too, particularly on Horizontal Bar.
“The Kolman was too close, so it was hard to finish the routine, but the dismount was good. So the High Bar final is so-so,” he opined. After day one, his score is still the third best.
Billed as Hashimoto’s biggest rival for the World title, Paris Olympic champion and fellow Japanese Oka Shinnosuke struggled, coming off the Horizontal Bar and then falling multiple times on Floor Exercise, where he mustered only 10.300. The 21-year-old felt ill before the competition, and it clearly affected his performance Sunday.
“Even now, my condition isn’t great. During the warmup before competing, the pain came back a bit, and on Floor I made a big mistake. I want to fix that as soon as possible and come back for revenge in the final,” Oka told reporters afterward.
“I’m frustrated, but even when I felt like my spirits were sinking, I was able to keep looking forward and perform, so that was good,” he added. Despite the mistakes, Oka still sits eighth overall and is in no danger of missing the 24-gymnast cutoff for the All-Around final.
Seifert, the leader of a strong Swiss team that finished second at the European Championships this year, put six strong routines together to finish just behind Hashimoto. A practitioner of calm and clean gymnastics, Seifert showed no sign of the problems that plagued him on Horizontal Bar at this spring’s European Championships. Instead, it was one of his highlights: he earned 14.000 for the routine that ends with a triple tuck dismount, and was also at or above 14 on Pommel Horse and Parallel Bars.
In his World Championships debut, Daniel Marinov (AIN) also posted three scores above 14 to land third thus far. Florian Langenegger of Switzerland, Colombian Angel Barajas and Caio Souza of Brazil round out the top six after six subdivisions. Two more will compete today.
14.700: The magic score in Jakarta – it certainly seemed that way, anyway.
14.700 was the top score of the day on Floor Exercise, Pommel Horse, and Still Rings, posted by Briton Jake Jarman, Nariman Kurbanov of Kazakhstan and American Donnell Whittenburg, respectively. The common thread in their exercises? Electrifying displays of difficulty.
“Sometimes when I do Rings I get kind of an out-of-body experience. This time I was all in the moment, so that was great. I really hit my cues on everything I needed to do,” said Whittenburg, who came close to sticking his monstrously difficult triple pike dismount in subdivision four.
“I knew it was going to be a good landing, but I just didn’t know how good,” he added. “I’m definitely happy about that one.” Whittenberg was also pleased to come out strongly after an ankle injury sidelined teammate Asher Hong minutes before the U.S.’s subdivision was scheduled to start.
“He’s honestly handled it like a champ. He still was out there with us the whole way, cheering us on, picking us up, even when we were having some mistakes,” Whittenburg said. “We’re going to have his back throughout the whole thing.”
Like Hashimoto, Jarman felt that fatigue was a factor in what he did. The reigning World champion on Vault was unable to land his signature Kasamatsu 2.5 twist and will miss the final as a result. “Even on Floor, I felt like a space cadet to be honest,” Jarman said. “I’m just annoyed because today I felt more tired than I have been. We only got here two or three days before training, so it’s a quick turnaround.”
Olympic Vault champion Carlos Yulo of the Philippines averaged 14.750 for a gorgeous piked Dragulescu and handspring front 2.5 twist to lead on Vault ahead of two-time Olympic medallist Artur Davtyan of Armenia. The highest number of the day came from newcomer Tsunogai Tomoharu of Japan on Horizontal Bar: 14.800.
Despite the struggles elsewhere, Oka was the top finisher on Parallel Bars with 14.533. He can also take comfort knowing that qualification scores don’t carry over to the finals.
“Of course, I haven’t given up,” he said. “I still have plenty of chances — maybe in the All-Around, maybe on Parallel Bars — so if I can fight through without mistakes to the very end, I think I can achieve my goals.”
