• Japan's Yuto Horigome wins second Olympic gold medal in men's street skateboarding

PARIS: Daiki Hashimoto conjured up some late magic to help Japan win Olympic men’s team gymnastics gold on Monday as arch-rivals China crumbled with the title within their grasp.

For Japan this was a record-extending eighth team title. The United States took bronze ahead of Britain.

China were favourites after bossing qualifying and only had to hold their nerve in the last of the six rotations to claim their first title since 2012.

But China’s Su Weide fell twice on the horizontal bars, leaving an unexpected opening for Japan to overhaul them on the line.

And in a nail-biting denouement that had the crowd at the Bercy Arena on the edge of their seats, Hashimoto, the all-around and horizontal bar champion from the Tokyo Games, finally hit form after a quiet night.

He produced a superb performance to get Japan home by just 0.532 points with an overall points tally of 259.594 to take the title left vacant because of the absence of Russia due to the invasion of Ukraine.

This was the first of 14 artistic gymnastics titles on the line at Bercy, with Simone Biles’ United States team in the spotlight on Tuesday.

Earlier in the day, Japan’s Yuto Horigome won back-to-back Olympic gold medals in men’s street skateboarding after scoring a nearly perfect 97.08 on his fifth and final trick Monday to pass Americans Jagger Eaton and Nyjah Huston.

Horigome finished just 0.1 points ahead of Eaton, who despite a brilliant showing had to settle for silver. Huston took home the bronze, still an improvement after a disappointing seventh-place finish three years ago in Tokyo when skateboarding made its Olympic debut.

The 25-year-old Horigome came up empty on his second, third and fourth tricks, then stunned the crowd on his final attempt. Hutson and Eaton each wiped out in his fifth chance, making Horigome an Olympic champion again.

Snoop Dogg, who has quickly become one of the celebrity faces of the Paris Games, was in attendance and gave Huston some well-deserved appreciation. Huston nailed his second run with a Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg’s song playing on the speakers around La Concorde Urban Park.

It did not turn out to be a winning anthem for the U.S. skateboarder, after Horigome’s final jump flipped the script at nearly the last minute.

This competition was scheduled for Saturday, but the same rain that soaked the opening ceremony down the Seine River — then much more overnight and into the morning — caused it to be postponed. World Skate cited adverse weather conditions for the move, and it was one of a handful of outdoor events affected over the weekend before skies cleared.

Sunny, warm weather greeted the skateboarders Monday, with temperatures hovering around 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30 Celsius) late in the preliminary round and throughout the final. The stands remained packed despite the heat and France’s Vincent Milou and Aurélien Giraud not making it through the prelims.

Also not reaching the final were 14-year-old Japan skateboarder Ginwoo Onodera, who was making his Olympic debut, and Chris Joslin from the U.S., who had an off day.

AFP/AP