TOKYO • Simone Biles may have stolen the spotlight on the last day of the artistic gymnastics programme yesterday, but it was the Asians who dominated and stood on top of the podium in the three remaining finals at the Ariake Gymnastics Centre.
China's Zou Jingyuan won the parallel bars title, taking his second medal after claiming bronze in the men's team event last week.
Germany's Lukas Dauser took silver and Ferhat Arican captured Turkey's first medal in gymnastics when he finished with a bronze.
Zou showcased a number of complex moves while swinging up and down the bars, and he completely obliterated the field with a score of 16.233. Dauser was a distant second with 15.700. Arican, who struck gold on the apparatus at this year's European Championships shortly after testing positive for Covid-19, trailed with 15.633.
"Everybody's performance was very good, especially the German and Turk. Actually I don't feel I did a very good job, and I don't know why I still got the gold medal," Zou told Xinhua News.
"I have a very good coach, and parallel bars is one of China's strongest apparatus. When I was a child, I started practising on parallel bars, my starting point in gymnastics."
Biles won a bronze medal on the balance beam, while the final gold of the women's programme went to China's Guan Chenchen with a score of 14.633 and the silver to her compatriot Tang Xijing. But it was Biles who grabbed the attention by courageously returning to competition after she abruptly dropped out of the team competition last week, citing mental health issues.
Japan's all-around champion Daiki Hashimoto then captured another gold for the host nation with a high-flying routine on the horizontal bar.
His 15.066 points put him ahead of silver-winner Tin Srbic of Croatia, with 14.900, and Nikita Nagornyy of the Russian Olympic Committee, who took bronze with 14.533.
Following his triumph in last week's all-around competition, Hashimoto was hailed in Japan for following in the golden footsteps of Kohei Uchimura, whose hopes of a medal at his home Games ended prematurely following a fall from the horizontal bar during the qualifying round.
Hashimoto's victory yesterday will further burnish his name after he finished with a Tokyo medal haul of two golds and one silver.
"I've been aiming for Kohei-san for a long time... I'm sure he'd win the gold medal if he were here, so I'll do my best to catch up," he said.
"I will not give up as a world champion, I want to firmly pursue my ideal performance and continue to be the best in the world."
REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
