Japan sweep junior team, all-around golds on opening day of Asian Artistic Gymnastics Championships
Singapore, 10 JUNE 2023– Junior World Artistic Gymnastics men’s champions Japan continued their dominance by sweeping both the men’s team and all-round titles on the opening day of the Asian Junior Artistic Gymnastics Championships at the OCBC Arena.
Japan, who beat China (silver) and Italy (bronze) in March to win the world junior crown in Turkey, stayed true to form in Singapore.Led by Tanida Masaharu and Noda Rento, members of the victorious Japanese team in Turkey, Japan – which also featured Fukubayashi Haruki and Kaneda Akito – racked up a combined score of 241.05 points to seal the team gold.
Tanida Masaharu in full flight at the end of his parallel bars routine at the OCBC Arena today. He wins the individual all-around gold by scoring 79.9 points, edging out teammate Noda Rento by a mere 0.1 point. PHOTO CREDIT: Shaun Ho
The Chinese team of Huai Tianlang, Wang Haoyu, Wang Chengcheng and Zheng Ao (236.450) took the silver while South Korea (233.750) earned the bronze.There was extra reason to celebrate for Masaharu as his combined score of 79.9 points earned him the all-around title.
Buoyed by a strong showing on the parallel bars, Masaharu, whose score of 14.350 was the highest on the day, managed to edge out compatriot Rento by just 0.1 point. South Korea’s Moon Geonyoung (78.650) took the bronze.Said Masaharu: “I am very happy to win both the team and the individual all-round titles today. I knew Rento was also performing well and going into our last apparatus (pommel horse), I was feeling a bit nervous. But I stayed focused to finish my routine as best as I could.”
His performance proved pivotal as his score of 13.45 on the pommel horse was just enough to see him clinch the gold even though Rento scored 13.50. Masaharu is now targeting four more golds (parallel bars, pommel horse, rings and high bar) in Monday’s apparatus finals.
Singapore’s Jovi Loh finishes as top South-east Asian Hosts Singapore finished 11th out of 11 teams in the team event.But an inspired performance by 15-year-old Jovi Loh saw him finish 14th out of 42 competitors in the men’s junior all-around. He was the highest-placed South-east Asian male, ahead of the Philippines’ Karl Yulo in 15th spot.
The competition continues on Sunday, June 11, with the junior women’s team and individual all-round titles on offer. Japan will again be favourites for both titles with the highly-rated HarukaNakamura the one to beat.
Members of the public can purchase their tickets for both the junior and senior championships at https://ticketmaster.sg/activity/detail/23_aagc2023. Tickets for a day pass start at $15. The event will also be streamed live on all competition days and can be found at https://asianchampionships.elevatebroadcast.com/index.php.
Results for Saturday, June 10 Men’s Junior Team:
1) Japan 241.050
Tanida Masaharu, Noda Rento,
Fukubayashi Haruki, Kaneda Akito
2) China 236.450
Huai Tianlang, Wang Haoyu,
Wang Chengcheng, Zheng Ao
3) South Korea 233.750
Kim Seungbin, Moon Geonyoung,
Noh Hyeonu, Park Sunwoo
Men’s Junior Individual All-Around:
1) Tanida Masaharu (Japan) 79.900
2) Noda Rento (Japan) 79.800
3) Moon Geonyoung (South Korea) 78.650
AAGC Junior MAG Full Results – 10 June 2023
https://app.box.com/s/1hb4044v28ap5n5e1o48qo2onjudvlut
