July 18, 2009
*revised on July 22, 2009

Japan wins first Japan Cup

Men's competition had all of the top six countries at the Beijing Olympics. Each country had at least one returning Olympian and those Olympians led not only their teams but also the competition.

The reigning Olympic team champion, China, and the former Olympic team chamion, Japan, were in the same group, and started the competition from floor.

Japan had two small errors from the first two gymnasts, but Kohei Uchimura showed very beautiful execution and stuck his triple twist dismount. China had some mistakes as well, but Feng Zhe had a powerful routine with layout full-in mount. The United States had to count low scores below 13. Russia and Korea performed good routines on rings and led the competition.

Japan's Koki Sakamoto got the best score on pommel horse over Teng Haibin of China (gold medalist at the Athens Olympics) in the second rotation. Sakamoto had beautiful one-pommel work, such as E-flop, and Teng had a Russian wende between the pommels. Their good scores led both teams to score a 15 average for their 3 gymnasts per event.

The biggest stunt of this rotation was Golotsutsokv's Tsukuhara piked double (Lu Yufu); he scored 16.350. Korea vaulted two double twisting Yurchenko's, but they didn't score high enough to climb up to medal contention. Hambuchen showed very clean Yamawaki's in the middle of his routine on rings, as well as a back uprise to inverted cross, and that was the only 15 for Germany. The United States was also struggling on rings; Horton was the only gymnast who scored 15.

China regained their first place ranking on their event, rings, in the third rotation. Chen Yibing, Olympic gold medalist on this event, did a beautiful Maltese cross to inverted cross and stuck his layout full-in dismount. Japan came to their weakest event with China, but Sakamoto performed the most spectacular routine even though he had some pain in his wrist. His stiff armed Pineda to Maltese was the single most interesting stunt on this event. Germany and USA performed very strong vaults; Germany's biggest stunt was Dragulescu (Roche-half) by Matthias Fahrig, but he had a low landing. The United States had two Roche's with good landings to score above 16. Russia and Korea struggled on parallel bars, except for Yoo Won Chul of Korea, who is the two-time medalist in the recent world championships and silver medalist at Beijing Olympics. Yoo's most spectacular stunt was a piked Morisue, but before his dismount, he did a beautiful back overbar sommie to handstand.

Japan started to regain its power to lead the competition on vault. Uchimura's Shewfelt was not his best, but Yamamuro's Lopez and Sekiguchi's Yeo II were impressively well done. Their total score on this event, 48.900, was very high. China was also very strong with two Driggs and one Lopez to score above 48 in total. Germany performed very clean routines on parallel bars, especially Nguyen and Hambuchen. The Korean, Kim Seung ll, did layout Kovacs and tucked Kolman on high bar but he could not score above 15.

Japan kept its confidence on its strong event, parallel bars. Kazuhito Tanaka performed a good Peach-full and the rest of the routine was very beautifully done. China scored better than Japan on this event. Feng Zhe's straddle front to L-sit was amazing. Teng Haibin did not perform the skill that has his name, but showed clean giant full to Tippelt. The USA had big disasters on high bar; Sho Nakamori injured his knee on his landing, and Danell Leyva slipped to his hands on his dismount. He somehow rotated enough to make a safe landing. The United States lost its chance to win a medal on this rotation.

Germany had a fall on high bar (Philipp Boy fell on Kolman) but Hambuchen amazed the crowd with 4 excellent releases to score 16.100. Russia did not get a big score but had no big mistake. After this rotation, Japan led the competition followed by China. Third place would be fought out between Russia and Germany.

Russia had some form breaks on pommel horse that would cost them a medal. Germany, however, amazed the crowd (probably the most exciting performances for the crowd other than those of Japan). Fahrig hit his first pass (double twisting layout front to punch double front!) and Hambuchen did high layout double-double and stuck tucked full-in dismount. They went ahead of Russia to win a bronze medal.

China performed in the first half and Japan in the second half in the last rotation on horizontal bar. China was, unusually, unspectacular. Japan's Tanaka stuck his layout double-double dismount to lead Japan to a victory. Sekiguchi, however, missed stoop-in-shoot to hand stand with full twist. He underrotated it to somehow stop in a bent armed handstand. The most amazing part was AFTER that mistake; he pushed the bent armed handstand to a handstand, and generated enough swing out of it to pull off a very high Yamawaki without requiring an extra giant. That performance was so exciting that the crowd gave him a big hand.

The final competitor of the day, Kohei Uchimura, amazed the crowd in a way they expected; he hit his routine, including very high Kovacs, layout Kovacs and Kolman. He caught these straight armed. He failed to stick his landing (a little hop) but it was enough to ensure the Japanese victory.