Japan’s Oka wins first senior international title at Asian Gymnastics C’ships, China top in team
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Japan's Shinnosuke Oka won the men's individual all-around title at the 2023 Asian Artistic Gymnastics Championships.
PHOTO: EMILY CHAN
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SINGAPORE – If Japanese gymnast Shinnosuke Oka lands himself a medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics, he can look back at his time in Singapore fondly, for it is where he won his first senior international title.
One of Japan’s up-and-coming young gymnasts, Oka clinched the men’s individual all-around title at the Asian Artistic Gymnastics Championships at the OCBC Arena on Thursday after beating more experienced athletes like two-time world champion Carlos Yulo of the Philippines.
Already a world junior champion (2019) in the team and individual all-around, the 19-year-old scored 86.065 points to pip Yulo (85.930) and his compatriot Takeru Kitazono (85.431) to the gold.
He said: “I was able to show my ability as an all-rounder this time so I’m pretty satisifed with that.”
It was a heated battle for the top prize at the OCBC Arena on Thursday, with Yulo proving why he is a favourite for Paris 2024 as he led after the first session.
Trailing by 14.431 points with one apparatus to go in the second session, Oka left the best for last as he earned 14.566 in the pommel horse to overtake the Filipino.
With September’s World Championships in Antwerp, Belgium, and the Olympics coming up, Oka is aiming to be “an ace” for the Japanese team.
His pursuit of perfection led him to move over 500km from his home in Okayama to train in Kamakura when he was 16.
It was tough but Oka believes his win at the Asian championships validates his decision.
He said: “I was determined to succeed in gymnastics. The first six months were difficult. My parents were always supportive when I was in Okayama but once I moved away from family, I had to stand by myself.”
While Japan celebrated success in the individual event, there was disappointment in the men’s team event as China claimed their fourth straight crown.
Both teams have travelled here without their star gymnasts as China and Japan have already qualified for the 2023 world championships, a qualifying event for the Paris Olympics.
China’s Tian Hao competes in the pommel horse during the Asian Artistic Gymnastics Championships held at the OCBC Arena on June 15, 2023.
ST PHOTO: MARK CHEONG
But even with a weaker group, China – who retained only Su Weide from the team who won the 2022 World Championships – scored 256.762 points to finish ahead of Japan (256.694) and Kazakhstan (246.828).
Japan were also without stars like world championships individual all-around winner Daiki Hashimoto, but China coach Lu Bin noted that the “all the teams get better every year, so it is up to us to train even harder to stay at the top”.
With China, Japan and South Korea already securing their berths at the world championships, it was Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan (244.559) who emerged as the best of the rest, finishing third and fifth respectively to seal the last two qualifying spots.
Yulo also earned an individual spot at the world meet.
The first day of competition at the Asian championships also saw hosts Singapore finishing 12th out of 14 teams, with Zac Liew (70.365) the team’s best individual performer – he was 32nd out of 74 athletes.
The women’s individual and team all-around events will be contested on Friday, with the competition ending on Sunday.
