GB's Fraser and Jarman miss podium as Oka takes gold

3 months ago 12
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British gymnasts Joe Fraser and Jake Jarman narrowly missed the podium in a thrilling men's all-around final as Japan's Shinnosuke Oka won Olympic gold.

China's Zhang Boheng and Xiao Ruoteng took silver and bronze after defending champion Daiki Hashimoto of Japan paid the price of an early fall on the pommel horse.

Fraser's fifth place and Jarman's finish in seventh come after Great Britain were fourth in the men's and women's team competitions here this week.

Fraser, who has had a series of surgeries in recent years that left him wondering if he would ever compete at another Olympics, was consistent throughout and put in particularly eye-catching routines on the parallel bars and high bar to post a total of 85.532, only 0.832 off the bronze medal.

"To finish fifth in an Olympic Games, I couldn't be prouder," said Fraser, who came ninth in the final in Tokyo. "For me it was all about having fun today.

"I was really disappointed after the team final so I felt I had nothing to lose and went for everything I wanted to."

Jarman, meanwhile, had the day's highest vault score of 15.166 and, like Fraser, increased the difficulty of his skills from qualification and stuck every routine to score 84.565.

Great Britain have only ever won one medal in this event, Max Whitlock's bronze at Rio 2016.

Jarman, 22, still has a good chance of an individual medal in Paris, qualifying as the top gymnast for Saturday's floor final and heading into the vault final on Sunday as the world champion on that apparatus.

"Tonight is going to help a tonne for my individual finals," he said. "To be able to get out there again and not have to wait for a week will help keep the momentum going and I can't wait to do it again."

And Team GB still have plenty of other opportunities for a gymnastics medal, with Whitlock in Saturday's pommel horse final, Harry Hepworth in the rings and vault final, Luke Whitehouse in the floor final and Becky Downie in the uneven bars final.

It was an eventful all-around final, with top qualifier Zhang stumbling in his floor routine in the opening rotation, and then Tokyo champion Hashimoto coming off the pommel horse to leave the competition wide open.

It allowed Oka to capitalise and ensure the title of world's best all-around male gymnast went to a Japanese competitor for the fourth successive Olympics. It is Japan's second gymnastics gold of the Games after victory in the men's team final.

There was drama when Canadian gymnast Felix Dolci came flying off the high bar when his handguards snapped in half. Everyone in the arena watched in shock amid the sounds of the bar reverberating while the gymnast lay on the floor. But he got up and was allowed to do his routine again - donning new handguards which were bloodstained by the time he finished.

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