Kenzo Shirai: King of Twist |
Reigning world champion Kenzo Shirai won the men’s floor exercise for the third year in a row at the first day of the 11th Toyota International Gymnastics Competition. The 21-year-old, who won both the floor and vault at the worlds in Montreal in October, performed his namesake “Shirai 3” technique, a double backward somersault triple twisting layout ranked as a maximum-difficulty H-level move, scoring 15.800 points in Toyota, Aichi Prefecture. Compatriot Wataru Tanigawa (14.600) was second and Canada’s Jeremy Bartholomeusz (13.275) was third. In other men’s events,Takaaki Sugino won the pommel horse with 14.850, followed by Iran’s Saeedreza Keikha (14.275) and Kohei Kameyama (14.025). Taiwan’s Chen Chih-yu took the rings with 14.550, ahead of Kazuyuki Takeda (14.500) and Tanigawa (13.900).
On second final day Kenzo Shirai won the men’s vault, adding to the floor title he won the previous day. Shirai, who won both the floor and vault gold medals at the world championships in Montreal in October, scored 14.750 points at Sky Hall Toyota in Aichi Prefecture.
He has now won both apparatus at the Toyota event three years in succession.
His compatriot Keisuke Asato (13.812) had a bad landing and was second in the vault, followed by Canada’s Jeremy Bartholomeusz (13.625) in third.
Wataru Tanigawa (14.750) beat Shirai (14.000) and Canada’s Evan Cruz (13.175) to win the parallel bars.
Hidetaka Miyachi won the horizontal bar with 14.200, ahead of Shirai (14.125) and Germany’s Philipp Herder (11.900).
In the women’s events, Sae Miyakawa won the vault with 14.249, followed by Germany’s Sarah Voss (14.133) and Mai Murakami (14.049).
France’s Melanie de Jesus dos Santos took the uneven bars with 14.533, ahead of Russia’s Elena Eremina (14.466) and France’s Juliette Bossu (14.166).
On Sunday in the second part of finals, Mai Murakami won the women’s floor for the second year in a row with 14.333 ahead of Aiko Sugihara (13.266) and Germany’s Sarah Voss (13.033).
Olympic Champion Sanne Wevers of the Netherlands took the balance beam with 14.100. France’s Melanie de Jesus dos Santos (13.700) was second and Asuka Teramoto (13.600) was third.
► Women's results