China Clinches Team Championship, Japan Takes Individual Crown in Opening Day of Asian Senior Gymnastics Championships
SINGAPORE, 15 JUNE 2023 – China and Japan shared the spoils on the opening day of the Asian Senior Artistic Gymnastics Championships at the OCBC Arena, winning the men’s team and men’s individual all-around golds respectively.
China and Japan opted to rest their star gymnasts for this competition as both countries have already qualified for September’s World Championships. But the two nations showed their strengthin depth as they dominated the field despite the absence of their best gymnasts.
Su Weide was the only gymnast from China’s 2022 World Championships winning team in Singapore. Yet he combined to good effect with Lan Xingyu, Tian Hao, Yin Dehang, Xie Chenyi andTa Yinga to register 256.762 points, just ahead of Japan’s 256.694. Kazakhstan took the bronze with 246.828 points, edging out South Korea.
Japan were also missing their big guns like World Championships individual all-around winner Hashimoto Daiki. But the team of Oka Shinnosuke, Kitazono Takeru, Sasaki Fumiya, Tsumura Ryota and Yoshida Motomu proved worthy replacements and missed out on gold by the slimmest of margins.
Said China coach Lu Bin acknowledged the keen competition between China and Japan. China’smen’s team edged Japan at the 2022 World Championships but in the Asian Junior Championships in Singapore last week, Japan’s juniors beat the Chinese.
He said: “All the teams get better every year, so it is up to us to train even harder to stay at the top.”
But there was consolation for Japan as Oka won the individual all-around title, his score of 86.065 just enough to pip Filipino sensation Carlos Yulo (85.930) to the gold. Fellow Japanese Kitazono Takeru (85.431) took the bronze.
Japan’s Oka Shinnosuke, the 2019 junior world all-around champion, showed he can also deliver the goods at the senior level by claiming his first senior individual all-around Asian title.PHOTO CREDIT: Linee Yeo
Said Oka, the 2019 junior world all-around champion: “The main objective was to win a team gold. I am disappointed that we didn’t manage to do that.
“But winning an all-around gold is a good consolation. It will be a busy 12 months with the WorldChampionships and the Olympics and I want to be an ace for Japan to make it to the national team.”
Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan qualify for World Championships
With the Asian Gymnastics Championships serving as a qualifier for September’s World Championships – where Olympic slots will be up for grabs – all eyes were also on which two teams willjoin China, Japan and South Korea as qualifiers from Asia.
The three nations have already qualified for the Belgium World Championships by virtue of their top-eight finish in the team event at last year’s World Championships. Thus, how they finished in the team event in Singapore was inconsequential to World Championship qualification.
In the end, it was Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan who emerged as the best of the rest, finishing in third and fifth place respectively to seal the last two qualifying slots.
The Philippines’ Carlos Yulo earned an individual all-around silver medal as well as a place in September’s World Championships.PHOTO CREDIT: Linee Yeo
There was also joy for the Philippines as Yulo also earned an individual spot at the World Championships.
Host Singapore finished 12th out of 14 countries. Zac Liew was Singapore’s best individual performer, finishing 32nd out of 74 athletes.
The Asian Championships continues tomorrow with the women’s team and individual all-around competition.
Members of the public can purchase their tickets for the senior championships at https://ticketmaster.sg/activity/detail/23_aagc2023. Tickets for a day pass start at
$20. The event will also be streamed live on all competition days and can be found at https://asianchampionships.elevatebroadcast.com/index.php.
Results for Thursday, June 15 Senior Men’s Team Finals
| Medal | Names | Country | Score |
| Gold | Lan Xingyu Su Weide Tian Hao Yin Dehang Xie Chenyi Ta Yinga | China | 256.762 |
| Silver | Kitazono Takeru Oka Shinnosuke Sasaki Fumiya Tsumura Ryota Yoshida Motomu | Japan | 256.694 |
| Bronze | Ilyas Azizov Milad Karimi
Nariman Kurbanov Dmitriy Patanin Alisher Toibazarov Diyas Toishybek |
Kazakhstan | 246.828 |
Senior Men’s Individual All-Around Finals
| Medal | Name | Country | Score |
| Gold | Oka Shinnosuke | Japan | 86.065 |
| Silver | Carlos Yulo | Philippines | 85.930 |
| Bronze | Kitazono Takeru | Japan | 85.431 |
Asian Artistic Gymnastic Championships 10th Senior MAGIAA and Team Full Results 15 June 2023
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