24 Jul 2025

Olympic champions lead Japan to men’s team gold, but Oka misses out in all-around

ESSEN – Hashimoto Daiki and Oka Shinnosuke, Olympic men’s all-around champions from Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 respectively, led Japan to a commanding victory in the artistic gymnastics men’s team final at the Rhine-Ruhr 2025 FISU World University Games on Wednesday.

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Nearly a year after guiding Japan to men’s team victory at Paris 2024, Hashimoto and Oka were golden once more. Together with teammates Kawakami Shohei, Tsunogai Tomoharu and Hasegawa Tsuyoshi, they accumulated 252.027 points, more than 12 points clear of silver medalists Canada (239.593) while Switzerland took bronze (239.162).

China, the team champions from the Chengdu 2021 FISU Games held two years ago, did not field enough gymnasts on each apparatus to contend for a team medal.

BOUNCING BACK

Despite early setbacks - both Oka and Hasegawa fell on the pommel horse in Japan’s second rotation - the team rebounded with near-flawless performances across the remaining apparatus.

Hashimoto delivered strong and impressive routines on all six apparatus to post the top score in the all-around with 85.197 points.

“It was a good competition”, Hashimoto said afterward. “We were very strong as a team.

“On pommel horse, two gymnasts had mistakes, that can happen. From rings (onwards), we had a strong competition. On high bar we finished strong.”

Coming in as hot favourites, Japan lived up to expectations. “As a Japanese gymnast, we always perform to our best,” Hashimoto said. “There’s no pressure.”

OKA STRUGGLES

Reigning Olympic all-around champion Oka’s error on the pommel horse proved costly as Hashimoto and Kawakami finished 1-2 in all-around qualifying. Oka placed third but misses out on the final because of the ‘two-per-country’ rule.

“It was a battle for me”, Oka said afterwards. “I didn’t feel in the best shape, but I still managed to get the gold with the team, so I’m happy about that. My back hurts, so I had to overcome that problem in the competition.”

“Not everything went smoothly, unfortunately.”

However, the triple gold medallist from Paris 2024 (team, all-around and high bar), managed to qualify for four individual apparatus finals - floor, rings, parallel bars and high bar.

INDIVIDUAL FINALS

The men’s team final and qualification served as a qualifier for the individual all-around final and apparatus finals, which take place on Friday and Saturday at Messe Essen Hall.

Oka topped the standings on parallel bars, while Hashimoto led the way on high bar. Ukraine’s Nazar Chepurnyi will have a chance to defend his FISU World University Games vault title after qualifying in first place.

Other top qualifiers included Luke Whitehouse (GBR) on floor, Mamikon Khachatryan (ARM) on pommel horse, and Liu Hengyu (CHN) on rings.

The qualifications and team final for the women will be decided on Thursday. Tickets here.

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