Japan’s Daiki Hashimoto won his fourth world multiple gymnastics title, moving to within two of the record shared by Simone Biles and Kohei Uchimura.
Hashimoto totaled 85.998 points for his fourth consecutive victory, winning comfortably by 1.799 over China’s Yang Haonan in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
It was the largest margin of victory in the men’s all-around at the Olympics or world championships since Uchimura won by 1.958 in 2013.
“The feeling of relief is stronger than that of joy,” Hashimoto said. according to Kyodo News.
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Briton Joe Fraser won bronze.
Frederick Richard, the 2023 bronze medalist, finished ninth, becoming the first American to place in the top 10 at multiple world championships since Sam Mikulak finished sixth in 2013 and fifth in 2018.
Watch highlights of Frederick Richard’s performance in the men’s all-around final of the 2026 World Gymnastics Championships to clinch ninth place and crack the top ten for the second time in his career.
Hashimoto, who also won the Tokyo Olympic all-around gold medal, had top scores on pommel horse, parallel bars and high bar. He qualified second for Thursday’s final.
“I know everyone is talking about that streak,” Hashimoto, 25, said before the world championships. according to Olympics.com. “They ask me what it means to be defending champion or what I think about trying to win four in a row. But to be honest, I think about things like that less and less every year.”
Uchimura, who won six consecutive world all-around titles from 2009 to 2015, as well as Olympic all-around gold in 2012 and 2016, and who retired in 2021, was in attendance.
“I’m sure (Hashimoto’s) sense of responsibility has grown to stay on the same stage as me,” Uchimura said, according to Kyodo News.
Japan’s Shinnosuke Oka, the 2024 Olympic all-around champion, qualified first, but fell on vault (his fourth routine) and high bar (his final routine). He finished eighth.
China’s Zhang Boheng, Hashimoto’s main rival over the past five years, did not participate in the world championships. Zhang defeated Hashimoto and Oka at the Asian Games in Japan on September 21.
Yang, the 23-year-old Chinese national champion, won silver Thursday at his first World Championships.
The Worlds continue on Friday with the women’s all-around final, live Peacock and NBCSN at 1:30 p.m. ET.
Skye Blakely and Claire Pease will look to extend a streak – at least one American woman has stood on every Olympic and world all-around podium since 2003, a streak of 23 world championships.
Frederick Richard seeks his first all-around national title at the Xfinity USA Gymnastics Championships this week, live on Peacock and NBCSN.
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