Other Sports

Japan Gymnast Daiki Hashimoto Defends All-Around Title at Worlds

Takuya Matsumoto / The Yomiuri Shimbun
Daiki Hashimoto gestures after winning the individual all-around title at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Antwerp, Belgium, on Thursday.

By Tsukasa Oya / Yomiuri Shimbun Sportswriter

14:57 JST, October 6, 2023

ANTWERP, Belgium — Daiki Hashimoto, the reigning all-around champion, defended his title at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Antwerp, Belgium, on Thursday.

The 22-year-old Hashimoto, who also won two gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics, became the fourth gymnast to win the individual all-around world title at least two times in a row and the first to do so after Kohei Uchimura, who won his sixth consecutive world title in 2015. Hashimoto and Uchimura are the only Japanese gymnasts to defend the title at least once.

Hashimoto had a slow start with the floor routine as he was not able to stick the landing, but his scores improved after the pummel horse. His final score was 86.132 points, 1.134 points ahead of second-place Illia Kovtun of Ukraine. Kenta Chiba came in fourth with 83.464 points.