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Max Whitlock wasn’t quite at his best when he switched to pommel horse on Saturday afternoon. In the second half of his routine, he suffered a noticeable break in form and then fought hard to maintain his pace. But what is most important in the tense qualifying round where medals can only be lost, not won, is that he managed to do it.
He finished with a score of 14.900, qualifying for the pommel horse final in fifth place and he was satisfied. “Qualifying is a nerve-racking, toughest one, because the rest of the Olympics depends on that,” said Whitlock. “I’m really, really happy with my events today.
As is often the case, Whitlock has a lot of room for improvement between qualifying and the finals, but the position of the five-time Olympic medalist is a reminder that there are gymnasts ready to profit from any mistakes. Among them is Rhys McClenaghan, 22, an incredibly clean and precise pommel horse worker who became the first Irish gymnast to reach an Olympic gymnastics final qualifying in second place with a score of 15.266.
The rest of the British squad had a solid day, qualifying for the team final in fifth place. Joe Fraser, the 2019 parallel bars world champion, was excellent, reaching the parallel bars final and finishing fifth in the all-around behind only gold contenders from China, ROC and Japan.
The drama, however, was provided elsewhere. Japan’s Kohei Uchimura, arguably the greatest male gymnast of all time, took off the horizontal bar in a pirouette and failed to reach the final at home. Uchimura, now 32, only competed on the horizontal bar and as an individual athlete rather than being part of the Japan squad. He does not yet know if this is his last meeting.
As their idol floundered, the young Japanese team qualified in first place: “After finishing the horizontal bar and coming back to the arena to watch, I saw them sort out their problems on their own,” said he declared. “I felt I was no longer needed. “
Artur Dalaloyan, the 2018 all-around world champion representing the ROC, would be one of the all-around gold contenders under normal circumstances, but in April he tore his Achilles tendon and then was operated. Three months later, he is the protagonist of one of the most amazing shows of the Tokyo Games and also recalls how much the Olympics mean. He elicited both horror and wonder when he qualified for the all-around final in sixth place after three hours of pounding his repaired tendon.
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After his floor routine, his penultimate routine of the day, Dalaloyan sat down and wept openly in his lap. He later explained that his tears were rooted in mixed emotions – the joy of being able to compete at a high level, knowing that he is capable of more: “I couldn’t control my emotions, something was happening. is broken in me, ”he said. “I couldn’t control how I was feeling.”
Dalaloyan, who didn’t think he would compete in the all-around until a late discussion with his teammates, was asked if he would be making the all-around final, to which he responded by covering his eyes. : “OK, I will do that,” he said. ” It is not a problem for me.
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