Tomita breaks Japan's 31-year title drought
(China Daily)
Updated: 2005-11-25 06:36

Hiroyuki Tomita of Japan competes in the rings event during the men's all around final at the World Gymnastics Championships at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne November 24, 2005. [Reuters]

Mizutori's coach added he was amazed at his ability to fight back.

"We are really proud of him because his points were really low after the pommel horse," said Yasunori Tachibana. "But he fought back apparatus by apparatus. We are amazed by his determination and concentration."

Savenkov said he was not even aware he was in medal contention until the final rotation.

"I didn't watch the scores and before the last apparatus, I looked at the scores and thought I might get a medal, but before that I was just concentrating on my routines," he said through an interpreter.

Tomita, known as "the wild man" to championship staff due to his unruly swept-up hairstyle, combined brute strength, athleticism and breathtaking acrobatics to become the first Japanese man to win the title since Shigeru Kasamatsu in 1974.

The student, who celebrated his 25th birthday on Monday, made a tiny error when he stepped out of bounds during his floor exercise but was faultless on the pommel horse (9.612). He then produced an amazing display of pure strength out of his 62 kg frame on the rings to score 9.562.

He followed that up with a 9.500 vault to establish more than an entire point lead over his teammate after four rotations.

The Athens parallel bars silver medallist then sealed the title on the same apparatus when he scored 9.550, the top mark in the discipline before he followed Mizutori on the high bar as the last competitor.

Mizutori produced a spectacular three release and catch routines to score 9.300 before Tomita celebrated the title with a technically more difficult but less spectacular routine to score 9.337 and wrap up the title.