03. October 2013  
Antwerp, Belgium  
Turn-WM

Exceptional athlete Kohei Uchimura with fourth gold for world record!

Kohei Uchumura (JPN)

Olympic and already 3-times world champion since 2009,  Kohei Uchimura from Japan, won a record fourth all-around world championship today, beating Japanese compatriot Ryohei Kato in a final that had a sense of inevitability from the start. Uchimura opened with the best floor exercise of the six top qualifiers, and was in command the rest of the way. He mixed strength, poise and elegance in every discipline, setting himself apart from all gymnasts and reinforcing his reputation as the greatest in the history of the sport. Even though Uchimura already held the men’s record for all-around world titles, he still shared it overall with retired women’s great Svetlana Khorkina of Russia, who also won three. "I always do my own things," Uchimura said. "I don't think about rivals." Such is his mastery that he doesn't have to. Uchimura also qualified for the weekend floor exercise, high bar and parallel bar finals. In the contest for the other medals, Samuel Mikulak of the U.S. made a decisive error late in his high bar routine and instead of challenging for silver he ended up fifth.
Fabian Hambuechen of Germany started with a weak pommel horse routine, but his evening-long chase ended with a great floor exercise and the bronze medal. Uchimura finished with 91.990 points, almost a massive two points ahead of Kato, who had 90.032. Hambuechen finished with 89.332. Britain’s Max Whitlock was fourth with 89.031, followed by Sergio Sasaki Junior from Brazil (88,949), while Sam Mikulak plunged to sixth with 88.548.
Britain’s Max Whitlock and Daniel Purvis produced outstanding displays in the men’s all-around final at the 2013 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Antwerp to finish in 4th and 7th places respectively. The British boys both completed clean routines over the gruelling six apparatus and remained composed in the tense atmosphere to put themselves right up amongst the World greatest gymnasts


Thursday 3 October 2013: MEN's ALL-AROUND FINAL
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The men's artistic gymnastics crown under historical aspects
In the new millennium were chosen (- except Debrecen 2002) martial Champions since Ghent 2001, eight of the nine world championships took place.
Seven times sat there alone Asian athletes the absolute gymnastics crown to:
3- times there were Chineses (2001 FENG Jing; 2006 + 2007 YANG, Wei), but there was 4-times Japanese Gold:
2005 by Hiroyuki TOMITA and then - so far since 2009, 3-times in unbroken succession (2009, 2010, 2011), by Kohei UCHIMURA who now faces a fourth-like success would agree ...!
Only once this Asian success track was interrupted by Paul Hamm (USA) in 2003 in Anaheim, then a year later in the Athens Olympic victory he won this controversial gold ...
So the question in 2013 now  is: Which European  breaks into the strong Asian top phalanx and thus into the medal area? The strongest competitor, Philipp BOY, who brought the unique feat to approach most closely twice as Vice World Champion this technical Idol Uchimura is, sadly resigned.
What will do the Vice World Champion of 2007 (Stuttgart) and Worlds bronze medalist of Aarhus (2006) Fabian HAMBUECHEN at the beginning of his personally fourth Olympic cycle  already on it?
At least, his routine, his enormous international competition experience and corresponding serenity, coupled with a strong may be day form can, but for now ... some open.
We'll see ...!

* Preview before the Final starts ...
On Thursday evening at 20.00 local time at the Sports Palace in Antwerp, takes place the most important decision of the 44th World Gymnastics Championships 2013 at the Men:
Top favorite for the title again in the all around - and for the fourth time in a row, the incredibly technically brilliant Olympic Champion, the Japanese Kohei UCHIMURA, at this evening actually can only beat themselves today. In the preliminaries, he was the only one athlete, who came across the 90-point limit, and with 91.924 points clearly! The only non-Asiat among his fiercest persecutors, th Samuel Mikulak from USA, followed by the second Japanese Ryohei Kato, and the two Chineses LIN, Chaopan and ZHOU, Shixiong, all close to each other just below the 90's points limit.
Behind the Brazilian Sergio SASAKI JUNIOR leads Germany's long-running Fabian HAMBUECHEN in front of the British Daniel Purvis, the Swiss Oliver HEGI and the second British Max WHITLOCK a field of European pursuers, whose form on the day will decide the eventual placement between or just behind the Asian top stars.
An absolutely exciting evening is coming ...!

⇒ STARTLIST, Men's AA-final men

The F.I.G wrote in its comment:
... a thrilling Final!

Seventeen countries were represented in this final, with Japan, China, Great Britain, Brazil, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland all having qualified the maximum of two gymnasts. The field included 14 European gymnasts and five each from Asia and Pan America.
 
Olympic Champion Kohei Uchimura, often referred to as “King Kohei” and widely considered the greatest gymnast of all time, dominated the competition as expected, leaving no doubt about his supremacy in Men’s Artistic Gymnastics. He sailed through the six rotations seeming to hit one routine after the other easily and outscoring the field on three apparatuses, namely Floor Exercise, Still Rings and Vault. On Pommel Horse and Horizontal Bar he registered the second highest scores and the third highest on Parallel Bars.
 
Uchimura’s 20-year-old compatriot Ryohei Kato confidently announced before the competition that “we want to win Gold and Silver for Japan.” And that is exactly what happened. Kato, who qualified in third place, put in an overall consistent and clean performance, with his best apparatus being Floor Exercise (15.500) where he placed second behind Uchimura.
 
Qualified in seventh place, Fabian Hambuechen did not compete in the first group in the final. He began the competition on Pommel Horse, his least-loved apparatus and one that had troubled him during preliminaries. He scored 13.333 points and placed 23rd of 24 after the first rotation. With nerves of steel, the 25-year-old former World All-around Bronze (2006) and Silver (2007) medallist fought back to steadily move up in the rankings after each rotation. The first decisive moment came on Horizontal Bar, on which he had no choice but to go full risk with a 7.400 difficulty value. The Olympic Silver medallist on this piece, Hambuechen hit his routine to mark the highest score of this final (15.933) and to move into fourth place before the final rotation.
 
Samuel Mikulak (USA), runner-up in the preliminaries, performed well and was on medal course, sitting in third place after five apparatuses. But then came the moment when the excited spectators were holding their breath as Mikulak performed on Horizontal Bar and Hambuechen on Floor at the same time. While Hambuechen hit his routine unflinchingly, Mikulak showed nerves and suffered a break on his full Takamoto. He scored a 13.766, earning an 88.548 for sixth. "People probably expect me to be upset, but I am actually pretty happy," said Mikulak. "I gained a lot of experience at my first World Championships.”
 
Max Whitlock and Daniel Purvis, who helped Great Britain to historic Olympic Team Bronze at London 2012, made their home country proud, placing fourth and seventh, with Whitlock narrowly missing out on a medal. His total score was 89.031; Hambuechen finished with 89.332. Max said: “I’m very happy with that, coming into my first World Championships and leaving with 4th place, competing amongst the very best is fantastic. Going up first on Pommel there was some pressure but I went all out for it and I’m really happy to have got through it, and the whole competition, cleanly.”
 
Brazil, host of the next Olympic Games, was represented by 21-year-old Sergio Sasaki Junior and 20-year-old Arthur Oyakawa Mariano in this final. Both had a very impressive competition in Antwerp, showing they were well on their “Road to Rio”. A delighted Sasaki Junior finished on a fantastic fifth place with a 88.949 total. His best event is Vault, where he marked the second highest score (15.200) on Thursday and also qualified for the Apparatus Final on Sunday. Oyakawa Mariano’s 85.140 placed him 17th.
 
Belarus’s Andrey Likhovitskiy improved from 12th place in qualification to eighth place in the final, shining most on Pommel Horse, where he marked the third highest score of the day (15.000).
After good preliminary results, Lin Chaopan and Zhou Shixiong of China disappointed with inconsistent performances in the final, placing ninth and tenth. Zhou’s highlight came on Parallel Bars, where he showed the best routine with 15.400 points. Medal aspirant 20-year-old Oleg Verniaiev of Ukraine started off well, but suffered a disaster in the fourth rotation on Horizontal Bar, when he totally lost rhythm and finally fell off the apparatus. Redemption came on Floor for Verniaiev, but he had lost too many points to catch up with the top scorers. He finished 15th with 85.665 points. Colombia’s Jossimar Calvo Moreno, who caught the spectators’ attention during preliminaries, also started well. He even posted the highest score on his speciality apparatus, the Parallel Bars, tying with Zhou, but then he had two falls from the Horizontal Bar and did not finish his competition.

* FINAL STANDING, All-around
1. Uchimura (JPN) – 91,990
2. Kato (JPN) – 90,032
3. Hambüchen (GER) – 89,332

4. Whitlock         (GBR) – 89,031
5. Sasaki             (BRA) – 88,949
6. Mikulak           (USA) – 88,548
7. Purvis             (GBR) – 88,106
8. Likhovitskiy     (BLR) – 87,432
9. Lin (CHN) – 86,864
10. Zhou (CHN) – 86,631
11. Gonzales (ESP) – 86,366
12. Belyavskiy (RUS) – 86,274
13. Willig (FRA) – 85,990
14. Deurloo (NED) – 85,731
15. Verniaiev (UKR) – 85,665
16. Braegger (SUI) – 85,264
17. Oyakawa (BRA) – 85,140
18. Schmidt (NED) – 84,207
19. Palma (POR) – 83,298
20. Abad (ESP) – 83,060
21. Ramos (PUR) – 80,964
22. Park (KOR) – 80,898
23. Hegi (SUI) – 78,165
24. Calvo (COL) – 69,507
      >> Detailed Results