Tokyo
Japanese gymnastics star Kohei Uchimura crashed out of the Tokyo Olympics on day one Saturday when he was eliminated from the horizontal bars competition and didn’t compete in the parallel bars.
The all-around 2012 and 2016 Olympic champion, who has said he will retire after these Games, lost his grip during his horizontal bars routine and failed to make next week’s final.
The 32-year-old chose not to go for a third successive all-around title following a shoulder injury. Regarded as one of the greatest gymnasts of all time, “King Kohei” also has 10 world titles.
He was penalised for his fall at the Ariake Arena, picking up just 13.866 points and robbing him of the chance to end his decorated career on a golden high on home soil.
Uchimura, 32, did not qualify for the finals in the high bar, his only event at the Tokyo Games. He is not part of Japan’s team competition.
“I couldn’t perform what I have practiced,” he said. “That’s how, I simply think. In the last three Olympic Games I could perform what I practiced.
But I couldn’t do that at these Olympics.” For more than a decade, Uchimura has been a dominant figure in men’s gymnastics. From 2009 to 2016, he captured every possible all-around title at the world championships or the Olympics.—AP
