Tokyo Olympics: Japan's Daiki Hashimoto wins all-around gymnastics gold

Daiki Hashimoto performing on the high bar at the men's gymnastics all-round eventLaurence Griffiths

Daiki Hashimoto pulled off an impressive high bar routine to take gold

Japan's Daiki Hashimoto has won the Olympic gold medal in the men's all-around gymnastics final after an almost flawless high bar routine.

The 19-year-old has taken over the mantle from Japan great Kohei Uchimura, Olympic all-around champion in 2012 and 2016, who chose not to defend his titles in Tokyo.

China's Xiao Ruoteng was first heading into the last rotation.

But Hashimoto won gold with his high bar performance, finishing on 88.465.

Xiao finished with 88.065 to claim silver and the bronze medal went to the Russian Olympic Committee's Nikita Nagornyy, who posted a total of 88.031.

Hashimoto did not cry on the podium - saying that was a sign that he wanted to achieve more.

"Had I cried, I thought it would have been as if I were feeling satisfied with where I am now," he said.

"I thought the champion must not cry but only look forward."

He was not entirely happy with his performance, as he felt the landing from his high bar routine could have been better.

"If I performed without making mistakes, I thought I would surely win the gold medal," he said.

"I wanted to show a performance that leaves an impression in people's mind without thinking about the colour of the medal.

"I wobbled at the landing. So I am not satisfied. But in that big moment, I was able to finish. So that was big."

The two British athletes in the competition, James Hall and Joe Fraser, finished eighth and ninth. Hall scored 84.598, and Fraser 84.499.

Fraser began the competition with high hopes of squeezing into the top three after qualifying in fifth place but an early fall on the pommel effectively put paid to his chances.

The 22-year-old, who is set to contest the individual parallel bars final next week, also stepped out on landing his vault.

He said: "I knew if I wanted to break into the medals I had to go all in and push the boat out on every apparatus, and I didn't want to think I hadn't done that.

"I made two mistakes but these things happen. I picked it up on the other apparatus and I'm overall very happy with the way I performed."

Hall said: "It's refreshing to break into that top eight again - I'm speechless.

"Credit to Joe [Fraser], he had a couple of mistakes and wasn't far behind me so that is refreshing to see, he is the future."

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