We had a qualification surprise in the men’s all-around with Tanigawa Wataru placing first rather than heavy pre-meet favorites Zhang Boheng or Hashimoto Daiki. Still, those standings were heavily influenced by Zhang’s rings and vault falls and Hashimoto’s horse disaster, so theoretically we would expect the favorites to rebound and battle it out for gold and silver today.
Tanigawa, Carlos Yulo, Joe Fraser, and any number of others (depending on how much of a splatfest we have) are likely to fight it out for bronze.
If we take each athlete’s best score on each event so far in the competition, Hashimoto would have an advantage of about 8 tenths on Zhang, but while Zhang had a mess of a qualification day, he had an strong team final performance—far stronger than Hashimoto, who struggled on vault and high bar. If the team final were to be repeated tonight, Zhang would win the all-around.
Keep an eye on Joe Fraser—and not just because the British are the only country to have medaled in every category thus far. He hasn’t hit pommel horse to his capability yet in the competition, and if he were to today, he could zoom up to bronze position.
After the first rotation, do expect Carlos Yulo to be in first since the lead group is starting on floor. The real test for Yulo will be whether he still stands within striking distance after going to horse.
In terms of withdrawals, Adem Asil pulled out (so Turkey will have no representatives in the all-around) and is replaced by Nestor Abad, and Ryu Sunghyun pulled out and is replaced by third reserve Krisztofer Meszaros after Omar Mohamed and Mohamed Afify also withdrew from the reserve list.
Yesterday, when they were introducing all the national flags, there was a big cheer for Luxembourg and then later a big cheer from the exact same place for the Netherlands, and my theory is that these Dutch fans mistook the Luxembourg flag for their own. And that pleases me.
Rotation 1
Zhang – FX – front full to fouble front pike, hop forward – back 2.5 to front lay, another somewhat large hop – punch randi, chest down, hop – 2/1, small slide, at least small slides on every pass if not large ones – 3/1, bounce to the side. An OK hit but a lot of landing hops.
Jarman survives pommel horse. A lot position, basically scraping the pommels throughout, but no major errors. No scores in yet, even for Burtanete’s vault.
14.033 for Zhang. 14.500 for Burtanete.
Fraser – FX – front lay to double front piuke, stuck – double double tuck, chest down, step to the side – back 2.5 to 1.5, against gets pretty low but not large on the step – 2/1, stuck – double Arabian, good stick – FTDT, chest down, cross step
13.333 for Jarman on horse, which is solid for him. 13.866 for Fraser.
Calvo – VT – Yurchenko 2.5, some knees, bounce to the side. Souza hits horse.
Yulo – FX – back 2.5 to front double pike, little hop – DLO 2/1, excellent, small slide – front full to randi, stuck, excellent – 3/1, small slide – back 1.5 to front 2/1, strong – 3.5 final pass, stuck landing. Excellent.
Casimir produces a minor miracle by staying on horse through all his leg breaks.
Abad finishes rings with a step back on his double double tuck dismount.
Yulo’s score is in as 15.166.
Hashimoto – FX – triple double, low but good control on landing – double double, stuck, excellent – front full to randi, holds onto the stick – 2/1 – good control on russians – 2.5 to front lay, clean, little slide back – 3/1, bounce back. Good one.
Malone is through a hit pommel horse routine.
14.666 for Hashimoto on floor gives him a non-small advantage over Zhang after 1.
Tanigawa – FX – front 2/1 to front lay, stuck – double double tuck, good stick – double front pike, small hop forward, nearly holds onto landing – manna – 2/1, arm wave and a slide back trying to stick it, kind of surprised himself – 2.5 to front full, holds the stick – double arabian 1/2 out, very nice finish, stuck.
Malone 13.766, which is a strong score for him.
Plata’s hand slipped early in his pommel routine for a rare fall in this first rotation.
14.266 for Wataru to put him in 6th behind Yulo, Hashimoto, and 3 vaulters.
Hong – FX – front full to double front pike,s tep OOB – DLO 1/1, slide back – front tuck full to double front, bound forward – good flare work – 2.5 to front lay, holds the stick, good layout position – 3/1, stuck. Nice finish but very bouncy at the beginning.
Soares and Souza both hit their horse routines today. Where was that in TF? Soares’ hand looked like it was about a millimeter from slipping off the horse on that dismount but he got it around.
14.266 for Hong is a strong score for him.
After 1:
Yulo – 15.166
Hashimoto – 14.666
Burtanete – 14.500
Heggemsnes – 14.466
Calvo – 14.400
Fine with that as a final result.
Rotation 2
Joe Fraser was nearly through pommel horse this time, but it’s just not happening at this event with another fall that will open things up in the bronze race. Which he is still in, depending.
Kovtun with a fairly large lunge forward on Kas 1.5. 14.300. Abad follows with a bit of a stumble on his Kas 1/1.
13.166 with the fall is still Fraser’s best PH of the event.
Yulo doesn’t come off but hits every part of his leg against the horse just before his dismount, so as well as a fall.
Calov – PB – front toss – makuts, hit – peach to one, a little lean but holds it into healy, small leg break – peach 1/2, hit – diam goes crazy and he falls in between the rails.
Malone with a large bounce back on his double double tuck on rings.
Yulo 11.900 on horse, which is still slightly better than qualification.
Hashimoto through pommel horse, a first for this rotation, which will keep him in good stead.
14.333 for Hashimoto on horse is just a tenth short of his TF score and is exactly what he was looking for.
Joel Plata with a bounce back on his double double tucked on rings. Tanigawa hits pommel horse to give himself the edge in the bronze race for now.
Malone went 13.666 on rings, also about on line which what he has been scoring in this event. he had been 13.766 and 13.700 thus far.
13.766 for Tanigawa. Hong’s flare work is a crowd pleaser as he gets through his best horse routine of the event. 13.700
Small step back for Jarman on double double tuck on rings. 13.000
Zhang Boheng helps himself at least keep within sight of Hashimoto with a hit routine on horse.
Zhang goes 14.233 to put himself into third behind Hashimoto and obvious medalist Lorenzo Casali.
After 2:
Hashimoto – 28.999
Casali – 28.566
Zhang – 28.266
Van den Keybus – 28.199
Tanigawa – 28.032
The obvious top 5. Zhang will be eager to gain a little bit of ground on Hashimoto in the rings rotation because this 7 tenth advantage is starting to grow large enough that Hashimoto would have to actively give things back. Tanigawa and Hong currently hanging close in that bronze battle. The problem for Hong is that he has to end on high bar.
Rotation 3
Yulo opens on rings with hits flat maltese positions – some swing in inverted cross – front pike to cross – double double tuck, shortish, hop forward.
Schmidt – VT – kas 1.5, some leg form, step to the side –
Calvo – HB – hits Liukin 9some form) and Kolman – tak 1/1 is quite past horizontal – tak 1/2 – DLO 2/1, good position, hop back
Kovtun on PBars – really good diam 1/2 position – hits the rail with his leg on a makuts, keeps going – double front hop back
Malone – VT – solid Kas 1.5 – small hop to the side.
Yulo 13.500 on rings.
Hashimoto has some hesitation and back arch on his inverted cross on rings , has to control some swing in handstands – double double tuck, little hop back. Did what he can do there.
Abad with a fairly large lunge forward on double front dismount on PBars.
13.866 for Hashimoto on rings. Zhang will expect 14s.
Heggemsnes – HB – layout tkatchev, good – tkatchev – quast – front stalder, solid – stalder – DLO 2/1, chest forward, large bound
Jarman – VT – Dragulescu – very good, medium step back, good direction, comfortably completed.
Yulo just got an upgrade to 13.800 on rings on appear, which is a big deal for him.
Wataru 13.833 on rings.
Obvious silver medalist Casali is through a good hit on HB, but two bounces back on double double layout dismount.
Souza – VT – botches his Dragulescu attempt and just does a double front to sit.
Dauser – PB – small hesitation in makuts but gets it – diam, nice – stutz, slight elbow hesitation – next Makuts element is quite good – diam – stutz, solid – double front 1/2 out small hop.
Hong 13.833 on rings. which is a bit down on what he wanted but fine.
Zhang with a hit on rings, lunge back on double double tuck.
Van den Keybus sticks his DLO 1/1 dismount on HB, just a bit of pike.
14.100 for Zhang on rings gains a bit on Hashimoto, but Hashimoto will still have .5 of a lead heading to vault, where the landing will be critical considering that Zhang fell in qualification and Hashimoto had a basically a fall in the team final.
Abbadini PB with an arch on his pull under mount but keeps it together – stronggles to get up to handstand after a healy – diam to stutz, secure – stutz to one – doubel pike, bounce back.
Fraser 13.600 on rings.
After 3:
Hashimoto – 42.865
Zhang – 42.366
Malone – 41.932
Tanigawa – 41.865
Dauser – 41.832
Malone and Dauser move up as they have been able to do vault and PBars respectively. Hong sits in 6th. Malone with a test now to see whether he can work out a Pbars routine at this event since the top group is going to vault. Tanigawa is keeping things close enough, but he’ll end on high bar, which is not a great score for him.
Rotation 4
Balasz with a large lunge OOB on a double front on floor.
Hashimoto – VT – lands a pretty strong Kas 2/1 today. chest down but not much movement on landing.
Malone – PB – makuts, hit – peach – siam, clean – stutz, small arch – front straddle solid – finishes with a double front, deeper landing, large bounce back
Tanigawa – VT – STUCK his double front pike 1/2. Wow. Tucks at the end, chest well down. But, you know, stuck and survived.
14.366 for Malone on Pbars, which is his best Pbars of the event.
Tanigawa goes 15.000 on vault to get closer to Hashimoto.
Hong – VT – well, he landed it on his feet? A couple times? Very short Ri Se Gwang landing, a large lunge forward, then a second lunge, and then a couple little hops on one foot. 14.166 puts him behind Malone now.
Zhang – VT – Kas 2/1 – very nice, small hop to the side, looks like he kept his foot out of the red.
Soares with a big struggle on his Makuts on PBars.
Tang CH – HB – zou li min, hits into a liukin – yam, nice height – tkatchev to piked tkatchev – tak 1/1, late, tak 1/2 – stalder – DLO 1/1 – Good hit. Some form.
14.900 for Zhang. He remains 5 tenths behind.
Fraser – VT – sits down double front vault.
Jarman – PB – peach 1/2, large arch and a walk – diam, hit – bhavsar, smooth – tippelt, nice height – stutz – double front 1/2, good stick.
Abbadini off high bar on a Tkatchev
Yulo – VT – hands down on his piked Dragulescu attempt – it looked so good in the air too but he bounded back out of it and had to parkour himself on the mat.
Second fall for Abbadini.
Jarman goes 14.166 on PBars to keep himself close, just behind Hong.
Souza – PB – peach 1/2 – peach – double front tuck to arms, lovely tuck shape – small struggle up to handstand – front straddle, good – tippelt, solid height – double front 1/2 out, stuck finish.
Yulo went 14.166 on vault to sit currently in 7th.
Kovtun – HB – zou li ming to yamawaki, closeish catch – layout tkatchev to tkatchev, solid – tak 1/1, normal – tak 1/2, lateish – stalder – quart – DLO 2/1, great height but deep landing, large lunge forward, possible hand down
Schmidt – PB – makuts, hit – diam, solid vertical – some feet – stutz, good – tippelt, hit – doubel front, lunge back
Calvo with a stagger OOB on his final pass on floor.
12.866 for Kovtun. 13.733 for Schmidt.
After 4:
Hashimoto – 57.765
Zhang – 57.266
Tanigawa – 56.865
Malone – 56.298
Hong – 55.965
Jarman – 55.299
Yulo – 55.032
Top three looking pretty solid right now, especially since Hong has to do HB and Malone has to do floor, which has been a struggle this week. Yulo is capable of a huge PB score, but that vault may have taken him too far down. Most of the other members of the top group are also capable of high 14s on PBs.
Rotation 5
Plata – HB – tak 1/2, really nice finish position – layout tkatchev to tkatchev – tak 1/1, also good vertical – DLO 1/1, hop forward.
Tanigawa – PB – front toss – healy, clean – stutz big struiggle, not to handstand – peach 1/2, good vertical – bhavsar, smooth – tippelt, clean – super high front straddle – double front 1/2 out, slide back. Mostly great work but one larger error oin there.
14.766 for Tanigawa. His other PB were 14.866 and 14.933, so just a ltitle lower.
Hong – PB – good bhavsar – tippelt, solid – makuts, clean – healy – diam, very nice vertical – stutz, solid – double front 1/2 out, stuck landing. Excellent routine.
Jarman – HB – layout tkatcehv, a bit low – tkatchev – tak – fraont talkder – stalder – DLO 1/1, stuck landing with aoms epike
14.900 a bigggg PB number for Hong. He’ll be 8 tenths behind Tanigawa now.
Zhang – PB – peach to one, little lean – to healy – diam, good – peach, hit – front straddle, solid – bhavsar, clean – tippelt, not the highest but solid – double front 1/2, small hop forward, chest down. Good.
15.066 for Zhang is quite strong. That could allow him to gain some ground on Hashimoto.
Fraser – fully crazy body position on long swing diam but he stays on – large lean to one rail and has to grab the other – not his day today – and he eventually falls
Kovtun – FX – front full to double front, small hop forward – double front pike, lunge forward OOB – pretty back 2.5 – randi, little slide – 1.5 to front lay, small slide – 3/1, stuck.
And now a second fall for Fraser. I really identify with his “but I want to stoppppp” face after that second fall.
11.533 for Fraser.
Yulo – PB – holds on one rail for 18 hours, healy – makuts, clean – healy – bhavsar, clean – tippelt, solid – diam, right to vertical – double front 1/2 out, small slide back.
Malone still waiting on the score for Schmidt. Now it’s in as 13.000.
Malone – HB – zou li min – cassina, hit – Kolman also solid – layout tkatchev to tkatcehv to piked tkatchev, solid – tak 1/1, solid vertical today – tka 1/2, later – quast – DLO 2/1, stuck landing. Excellent routine.
Hashimoto – PB – peach 1/2, hit – peach – front straddle, good height – bhavsar, smoothly done – tippelt, solid – stutz – double front 1/2 out, nearly finds the stick, leans to the side and ends up hopping.
Pommel horse still going in this rotation as Calvo finishes after a fall. 14.500 for Malone, so he’ll be less than a tenth behind Hong in 4th place.
15.000 for Hashimoto, so didn’t let Zhang gain much there. he retains a .43 advantage going to an event where he’d be favored to score higher.
Once Calvo’s PH score comes in, we’ll still have Balasz to go to finish the rotation.
10.400 for Calvo.
After 5:
Hashimoto – 72.765
Zhang – 72.332
Tanigawa – 71.631
Hong – 70.865
Malone – 70.798
Yulo – 70.198
Big scoring advantage for Hashimoto and Zhang in this final rotation, and Tanigawa should have enough of a buffer if he stays on high bar. We shall see.
Rotation 6
Soares – FX – good stick on doubel double whip to bck 2.5 to front lay, hand down.
Hong – HB – falls immediately on Kolman – redoes the Kolman and catches it, somehow, on his wrists???? Like, the bottom of his grips is I think what caught – Kovacs is hit – tkatchev – DLO 2/1, large lunge forward.
11.500 for Hong will drop him way down. Probably. Finishes on 82.365.
Zhang – HB – tak 1/1, late – tak 1/2, excellent – layout tkatcehv – Cassina, just a bit close but fine – Kolman, very good – stalder – DLO 2/1, hop to the side. Solid one.
Nice stuck double front pike off rings from van den Keybus,
14.433 for Zhang, which Hashimoto will view as small potatoes.
Jarman’s floor 14.433 puts him ahead of Hong.
Fraser peels off on his Kolman and he’s down on the mat, at first it seemed like injury based but it was actually FML based. Does resume with a hit, lands his double double layout with a small hop.
Schmidt – FX – nice double front pike first pass, little hop – front full to double front, lunge forward – doubel arabian 1/2 stuck
Yulo – HB – Yam, good form – tak 1/2, clean – kovacs, very close catch, can’t swing out of it, stops agains high bar for a moment – tak – stalder – DLO 2/1, hop forward.
Abad falls on horse.
11.900 for Yulo drops him behind Hong and Kovtun.
Hashimoto – HB – tak 1/2, solid – Cassina, clean – kolman, solid – layout tkatche vo tkatchev, hit – tak 1/1, very late – DLO 2/1, stuck. That will do the gold.
Malone finishes routine on floor with 2/1 side pass, small hop – 3/1, bounce back. A hit today, some larger bounces on a few passes, but a hit that should set him up to move into position to take advantage if Tanigawa misses.
14.133 for Malone so he finishes on 84.931.
Hashimoto 14.433 is actually a bit lower than I thought but he goes ahead of Zhang by 4 tenths for the win.
Tanigawa – HB – Cassina, caught with some form – layout tkatchev to tkatchev, hit – tak 1/2, a bit late – stalder – DLO 1/1, bound forward. Won’t be a huge score, but he had rather a large margin on Malone. Will be closer than he wants it to be though.
13.600 comes up for Tanigawa to give him the bronze by 3 tenths over Malone, who finishes 4th. Jarman ends up in 5th, and Hong is 6th.
Zhang’s applause there was a big mood.
