Kohei thrills fans with spectacular display

Even when he is not at his best Kohei Uchimura can woo you with his pyrotechnics, like he did at the Aspire Dome yesterday.The Japanese legend is not the gymnast he used to be after tearing his ankle ligaments at the World Championships last year. His return has been slow and painful, but Uchimura is making steady progress as he makes a comeback with an eye on the 2020 Olympics at home.Yesterday at the Doha World Championships, the three-time Olympic gold medallist and six-time world all-around champion produced a magical display on the Horizontal Bar to top the individual standings with a score of 14.600 and help Japan qualify into the team final.Uchimura has opted out of all-round competition here in Doha with his ankle still in recovery mode and is focusing himself to just three events. While he erred on Pommel Horse, the 29-year-old posted the best score on the Horizontal Bar.Uchimura said he is still way short of peak physical condition after slipping off the Pommel Horse in the final rotation. “If I could say I competed six events, I could say I was tired. But I didn’t. Even though I didn’t do six events, I felt kind of tired when I got to pommels. And also, I didn’t have good training on the pommel horse,” he said.With less than 22 months to go until the Tokyo 2020 Games, Uchimura knows the pressure will only grow. “I come to the Worlds and everybody is looking at me like I am the king,” said Uchimura. “The other Japanese gymnasts don’t look at me like that but when I compete I feel it, I feel the pressure. I feel like I have to do well.”Meanwhile, Russian men, who had stormed into the lead in the team qualifications on the opening day, finished on top and look good to win their first World Championship medal in 12 years, after posting a massive score of 258.402.Yesterday, Japan could only manage a second after completing their routine, finishing five points behind Russia. The United States were third, with Great Britain coming fourth. China were competing late in the night, in the last of the ten sub-divisions. Russia, China, Japan, USA, Britain, Brazil, the Netherlands, and Switzerland wrapped up the team qualification on top 8 positions respectively with France finishing 12th. Xiao Ruoteng was star of the day replacing Russia’s Nagornyy Nikita (87.098) in Men’s All-Around Qualification after earning 87.332 points. Sam Mikulak led the Americans with the second-highest individual total behind Ruoteng. Mikulak rallied his squad after, like Japan, three of his teammates missed routines on pommel horse in the fifth rotation. Mikulak appeared calm as he stepped up to the Pommel Horse despite his teammates’ inability to break 13.000 mark before him.“It definitely put a lot pressure (on me), but I think that moment I realised I needed that, I wanted that, because it’s going to be a lot of pressure in the next couple of meets. To really get out on this big stage and prove I’m a big competitor out here, I think making the statement was what I wanted this day to be,” he said.Meanwhile, defending rings champion Eleftherios Petrounias of Greece put his lack of preparation aside to top the qualifications. Petrounias, who will undergo a shoulder surgery in two weeks, scored 15.266 points. “It was a good performance if you think that I haven’t done anything since Europeans,” said Petrounias, referring to his gold medal-winning performances at the European Championships in August, when he last performed a full rings routine. “I used all my experience and everything was good.”Women’s qualifications will be held today and tomorrow. Based on their performances in qualifications, competitors will advance to team, individual all-around and individual apparatus finals.The competition will determine the winners of eight sets of medals for men (Team, All-around, Floor Exercise, Pommel Horse, Still Rings, Vault, Parallel Bars, and Horizontal Bar) and six for women (Team, All-around, Vault, Uneven Bars, Balance Beam, and Floor Exercise).The three medal-winning nations in the Team finals for both men and women will earn team berths directly to the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo while the others will have further chances toqualify in 2019 and 2020.