The first since Nemov: Nagorny became a bronze medalist in individual all-around at the Tokyo Olympics

Already a day after the incredible victory of the Russian gymnasts in the team all-around, two gold medalists had to go through the entire distance of six shells on the Olympic platform again. Nikita Nagorny and Arthur Dalaloyan, two undisputed world champions of previous years, intended to interrupt the national team's mediocre streak in individual all-around, which had lasted since Alexey Nemov became a medalist at the Games in Sydney.

The first sport for the strongest group of participants, which included both Russians, was floor exercise. On the carpet, the Chinese Sun Wei and Xiao Ruteng immediately showed a high class, scoring 14,500 and 14,700 points. After them, Nagorny began his performance. He still did not risk it and show a triple somersault, named after himself, leaving it for the next final. The Russian's performance was not perfect - he had deductions both for landings and for going beyond the mat. As a result, he earned 14,433 points.

The winner of the qualification Daiki Hashimoto managed to take the lead through floor exercises.

With the same basic difficulty that Nagorny showed, he scored 14.833 points with his beautiful, almost aerial acrobatics.

Dalaloyan was the last to enter the platform, for whom any jumps are especially difficult due to a recent injury.

The Russian was noticeably cautious on landings, and the judges rated him 14.050 points - he could not have dreamed of more at that moment.

The Chinese gymnasts continued to work faultlessly on the horse, which can be called their favorite apparatus.

Nagorny also avoided flaws by adding a fantastic 360-degree rotation on one hand to his performance.

But by the end, he sank noticeably and barely held the body over the horse, for which the judges wrote out only 14.266 points to the Olympic champion.

Much more they liked the approach of Hashimoto, who continued to hover above the ground and seemed to make no effort at all for this. After jumping off a 720-degree turn, the Japanese ball was awarded 15.166 points and further increased the gap not only from Nagorny, but also from Sun and Xiao. Dalaloyan then repeated Hashimoto's dismount, but his previous elements were not that expensive, and the second Russian gymnast was limited to 13,900 points.

The next round was supposed to help catch up with Hashimoto. On the rings, the Japanese performs worst of all, and at the Olympics they did not bring him more than 14 points. For Nagorny, this is one of the key types of the program. With the exception of a slight swing during the handstand, the Russian performed his program flawlessly and scored 14.666 points. Hashimoto also had a bad exit to the cross, as well as other characteristic mistakes. The judges deliberated for a very long time, forcing Dalaloyan to wait for his turn, and gave 13.533 points.

Arthur, who did not enter the top ten before the third round, no longer had the right to make a mistake to qualify for medals. His performance on the rings was as difficult and confident as that of his team-mate and earned the same high marks. Xiao Zhoteng lost a little relative to the Russians, but remained the leader of the all-around. Nagorny took off to fourth place, yielding to the Chinese by a little more than half a point.

The vault allowed Nagorny, who opened this shell, to finally climb into the top three. He performed a wonderful double somersault with a half turn, which brought in 14,900 points. For the first time that evening, he stopped frowning and rejoiced at his grades. Hashimoto chose three screws of the same difficulty, but on landing he did not just go beyond the mat, but even got off the platform. He scored 0.200 points less and missed the Russian. Dalaloyan also made a mistake on the landing. After a double forward somersault, bent over, he jumped on his toes three whole times, trying to find balance. The 2018 world champion in the all-around had to limit himself to 14.466 points.

The Chinese gymnasts performed well in their attempts, but still exacerbated the intrigue.

Xiao Joteng made the same jump and made the same mistake as Hashimoto, but at least stayed on the mat.

From his leadership relative to Nagorny, 0.368 points remained.

Sun Wei won even less against the Russian, having received the same mark for the vault.

On the uneven bars, Hashimoto made an attempt to recoup, and it succeeded.

With not the most outstanding difficulty, he performed the program perfectly, gaining a total of 15,300 points - if he had “flown” like that instead of one of his partners in the team all-around, the Russians would not have celebrated their victory.

Dalaloyan's base coefficient was higher, but he convinced the judges only by 15.033 points.

Sun Wei's performance on the uneven bars did not work out. Due to a bad dismount, he received 14.966 points, and left the platform with a grimace of pain, holding his hand. He not only missed Hashimoto, but also questioned his continued involvement. And Xiao Joteng, on the other hand, all grew together - with a score of 15.366 points, he still remained out of the reach of his pursuers. But this did not mean that Nagorny could not further reduce the gap. His performance on the uneven bars was phenomenal and brought in 15,400 points, which resulted in a win back of 0.334 points behind.

Exercises on the crossbar became a farewell competition for Dalaloyan, since he did not qualify for the finals on separate apparatus.

He showed his best result in Tokyo, but at that moment he was bypassed by another Japanese gymnast, Takeru Kitazon.

As a result, the Olympic champion in the team finished the personal all-around in sixth place.

It was time for another Russian to decide with which medal he wanted to end the evening.

Xiao Ruoteng tried to interfere with him and performed a solid program, but he could not find out his grade for too long.

Hashimoto's example showed that there could be nothing good in such a situation, and the bad expectations for the Chinese were justified - he was unexpectedly given a fine of 0.300 points.

Nagorny had a real chance to bypass him, as soon as he performed in the same way as in qualifying.

The Russian fulfilled his entire plan by 99%. Only the dismount failed - one extra step on the landing left Nikita behind Xiao Zhoten. Hashimoto, for whom the crossbar is a native element, happily took advantage of this. He retained gold for Japan in the individual all-around, which before him was consistently won by Kohei Uchimura. Nagorny became the first Russian medalist in this type of program over the past 21 years.