-Team Final-

The format of the team final was the same as the format of the 2003 World Championships: the eight qualifying countries were divided into two groups according to the qualification ranking; the first four countries started from floor and the other four countries started from horizontal bar. Japan was in the first group because it was in first place in the qualification.

Starting from floor was not good for Japan; the Japanese had been too nervous to do their best on this event in recent years, and they failed to earn a medal in some competitions. Regardless of their start value, all they needed was safe performances without going out of bounds, taking big steps on landings, or lacking the elements to get expected bonus points. Actually, the Japanese gymnasts were selected assuming this weakness; the top four all-arounders had been chosen automatically at the trials, and the two others were selected according to a special procedure to send specialists on certain events. The specialists on floor and vault were considered to be especially important. For that reason, it was Nakano who was selected because he was very strong on floor and ranked high in the all-around, too.

Because the first ranked country at the qualification was scheduled to perform last among the four countries on the last event, Japan performed first on floor. The leadoff was Tsukahara, a three-time Olympian and two-time world all-around medalist. He was supposed to be very reliable, but he was nervous. He hit his double twisting layout double back somersault but missed his second pass; he could not perform the last element of his three consecutive somersaults and lost 0.3 bonus points. The next competitor, Yoneda, was steady as usual. The last performer was Nakano, a very important, and key gymnast on this event. However, even this specialist missed. He went out of bounds after his one and a half twisting back sommie, full twisting layout front, and 1 3/4 forward roll. Even though no major breaks was made, the team total was not as high as expected.

Nakano would perform on this event only, even though he had qualified into the event finals of two other events. The delegation had not changed their minds about who the top three were on each event in the team final. The team had tested the team final format in the training camps, and they knew the roles for each gymnast.

In this rotation, the United States was excellent on floor and Romania was second. Japan was seventh and the reigning Olympic and world champion, China, was eighth, suprisingly, due to breaks by each of the three gymnasts.

Pommel horse was one of the good events for Japan, and actually it helped them recover from their disapointment on floor. Tsukahara hit his routine as the leadoff. That was great because the team might have been in a bad mood after floor if he had missed. Tomita showed a slight balance check in his 3/3 travel backward but scored 9.675. Kashima, the world champion on this event, changed his routine; he kept the E value of flop-russian combined sequence in reserve but did a D value instead (with 180 degree russian instead of 360 degree russian). Even missing 0.1 in this part of routine, his start value was still 10 and his score was 9.750, not as high as at the qualification, but still good enough for the team.

China regained their power with Xaio Qin's 9.862 on pommel horse. Romania was also very strong on this event, and Urzica, Popescu, and Suciu performed very well. The United States was not good at this event but hit their routines cleanly. The United States and Romania kept their lead after this event.

Rings produced the first interesting story in the dramatic competition. Japan needed to score as highly as possible in this event, but they knew it might be difficult to score as well here as on parallel bars or horizontal bar. They, however, actually scored very well in the qualification. Mizutori was the leadoff, but it was not his favorite event. He would perform on this event only, so he trained very hard for the strength elements in the training camps to get a high score. His effort resulted in a very good score; his hold of the strength elements was nicely executed and scored 9.625. Tsukahara and Tomita held their strength moves in good position and nailed their landings. Tomita scored 9.787, the highest score on this event of the day.

In contrast, the United States dropped due to poor execution of strength elements. Jason Gatson did not hold his strength positions long enough and lost some bonus points. His 9.125 was a big damage for the United States. Romania, however, kept their lead with a very strong performance by Selariu.

Vault seemed to be evaluated on nothing else but landing. Many countries had improved their skills, but lost points on poor landings. Japan was one of the countries which had improved since Anaheim. Kashima was the leadoff on this event and did a Driggs with beautifull execution (one step forward, though). Yoneda was not stable in the landing, and Tomita amazingly nailed his landing! With higher start values and better execution than in Anaheim, Japan could ascend to gold medal contention.

Romania was strong again on this event. Dragulescu nearly stuck his "Dragulescu" (Roche with a half twist) and scored 9.825. Thus, Romania still kept their lead over Japan and the United States.

Japan again performed first among the first four countries on parallel bars. Nakano, the top qualifier on this event, did not perform. This was not due to any sort of injury; It was planned before the Olympics. The three performers, Tomita, Kashima, and Tsukahara were selected in the training camp to perform on this event in the finals, and they had aimed at hitting their routines and nailing the landings. Tsukahara, the leadoff, took several steps backward on his landing and was short on his peach half. He scored 9.537 only, but this was not a problem for Japan. Kashima and Tomita hit their routines and scored 9.7s. Kashima's peach half seemed the best of the day!

Leading after the fourth rotation, the Romanians apparantly got nervous. They had never won a medal in the team finals in the past Olympics, and were under big pressure. Dragulescu hit a bar with a leg on his straddle front sommie to upper arm support, and Potra had a wobble after his straddle front sommie to support. They could manage to still keep their lead after this rotation, but the margin had become very small. The United States hit as well as Japan, and followed Romania and Japan. Gatson's original and tricky movement (swing backward and hop with one and a quarter twist) was brillant and gave him the best score of this event.

After the fifth rotation, the standings were as follows;

Romania 144.422
Japan 144.359
USA 144.297

See how close they were to each other! The margin even between Romania and USA was only 0.125! Even a single step on a landing could cost a gold medal... It was absolutely the most exciting heat ever in the team finals by these three countries.

On the last event, horizontal bar, the lower ranked country in the qualification performed first. So, among the three countries, Romania performed first. Suciu was not bad, but he could score only 9.275 due to a 9.6 start value. Before his score flashed, the judges had a long argument and the next performer, Selariu, had to wait for a long time. He got more and more nervous while he was waiting. In his performance, he fell on his Deff. Was this bad luck, or was he beaten by the pressure?

The next was the United States. They were also nervous. The leadoff, McLure, stuck his double twisting double layout somersault, but he missed a combination and had an extra giant between his full twisting piked Stalder and 1 1/2 twisting piked Stalder. The result was that he lost some bonus points. He scored 9.412 with a 9.7 start value. The next was Morgan Hamm. He hit his routine, including layout Tkachev and one-arm giant elements. His score was 9.762. There was still a possibility that the US would win a gold. However, Paul Hamm, the last performer and the current world all-around champion, missed his sequence of three consecutive releases. He could not do the third element, piked Tkachev, and this caused a big loss of start value. The sequence was supposed to give him 0.5 bonus points, but with only two releases it actually gave him only 0.2 bonus points and his start value was 9.7. The crowd got crazy when he stuck his landing, but he scored only 9.462. This loss of start value by the United States team was the equivalent of having one of them fall off.

Then Japan came up to the horizontal bar as the final team on this event. The leadoff was Yoneda, the top qualifier on this event. His Ryvalko and Kovacs were very solid and he scored 9.787. He provided a very good atmosphere for the rest of the Japanese performers. Kashima, the current world champion, was excellent, even though his Kovacs was a little closer to the bar than usual; he was talented enough to correct it with his next movements. His score was 9.825. The two great scores gave some relief to the last performer. Tomita was the last performer not only on this event but in the team finals. He had gotten the lowest score among the Japanese team in the qualification, but he pulled off one of his most memorable performances. His Kolman was beautifully executed and a very exciting movement in this situation. Not only the Japanese but the whole crowd got crazy during his routine. Then he perfectly stuck his landing! He beat the biggest pressure of all, and his score was 9.850!! That score brought a gold medal to Japan!

It was the first gold medal as a team since 1976. Japan had earned team bronze medals in 1984, 1988 and 1992, but nothing since 1992. This effort finally resulted in their biggest accomplishment! Congratulations, Japan!

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