2005 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships: Hashimoto Daiki leads as Oka Shinnosuke battles illness and injury on the opening day of men’s qualifying

Oka Shinnosuke wants ‘revenge’

Meanwhile, Oka – a three-time gold medalist at Paris 2024 – is struggling with both illness and injuries in the run-up to Jakarta.

“Even now my condition is not great. During the warm-up before the match the pain returned somewhat”, said Oka after the match.

This was evident on Sunday, as the 21-year-old recorded only one score above 14,000. Rotating alongside Hashimoto, he opened with a 13.933 on vault and 14.533 on parallel bars.

But on the horizontal bar in the third rotation – the event where he is the reigning Olympic champion – he missed a difficult catch-and-release move and scored 13.733.

The wheels came loose on the floor, where he went out of bounds in his first tumbling pass before falling on two more. His final score was 10,200.

Oka earned scores of 13.133 on pommel horse and 13.566 on still rings to end his day.

“On the floor I made a big mistake, a fall. I want to rectify that as quickly as possible and come back for revenge in the finalhe said, before reaffirming his resolve. ‘Of course I didn’t give up. I still have plenty of chances – maybe in the all-around, maybe on parallel bars – so if I can fight through to the end without any mistakes, I think I can achieve my goals.”

Just before competition Sunday, American champion Asher Hong withdrew due to an ankle injury. He was expected to be among the all-round contenders.