Oka Shinnosuke

It’s only been about six weeks since Oka Shinnosuke shocked to defeat the two frontrunners for the all-around gold medal in the men’s competition at the Olympic Games, but the 20-year-old hasn’t skipped a beat, winning gold again at yesterday’s All-Japan Senior Championships.

Oka topped the floor and high bar standings on his way to an 86.331, down only half a point compared to his total in Paris after going 14+ on every apparatus but rings, where he still managed a 13.399. The Olympic champion had some very strong competition here, including from 2020 Olympian Kitazono Takeru, who won the silver medal with an 85.599 after topping the parallel bars standings, and from Matsumi Kazuki, a floor standout who won the bronze with an 85.364.

Rounding out the top eight in this super talented field were Kawakami Shohei in fourth to narrowly miss the podium with an 85.264, Hasegawa Tsuyoshi in fifth with an 85.065, Miwa Teppei in sixth with an 84.731, Tanigawa Kakeru in seventh with an 84.599, and veteran two-time Olympian Tanaka Yusuke – who won a silver medal as part of the 2012 team and a gold with the team in 2016 – in eighth with an 84.232, showing his usual high-level performances on parallel bars and high bar.

In addition to Oka, we also saw 2024 Olympians Tanigawa Wataru and Sugino Takaaki competing here, with Tanigawa going up on every event but vault and showing his best work on parallel bars, while Sugino competed on floor, pommel horse, vault, and high bar, showing strong sets on each with his 14.7 on pommel horse the second-best of the meet.

Notably missing at the top of the all-around field was 2022 world medalist Doi Ryosuke, who competed well on his first three events but then injured his shoulder on high bar, forcing him to withdraw from the rest of the meet. Program standout and four-time Olympic medalist Hashimoto Daiki was also expected to compete here, but withdrew prior to the event’s start to focus on recovering from injuries.

The day after the all-around competition, this meet featured an incredibly exclusive “super specialist” championships, a glorified event final where the best guys on all six apparatuses got to battle to see who would be the best. Matsumi won the gold on floor with a 14.3, Tanigawa Kakeru won pommel horse with a 15.0, Kaneda Kiichi won rings with a 14.5, Kabeya Hinata won vault with a 14.399 average, Oka won parallel bars with a 15.4, and Sugino won high bar with a 14.833.

In the women’s competition, two-time Olympian and 2024 Olympic alternate Sugihara Aiko won the all-around with a 53.498, putting up the best scores of the day on vault with a 13.966 and on floor with a 13.366.

Taking the silver medal was Matsunaga Arisa with a 52.532, showing her best work on vault, while Iwasa Nodoka won the bronze with a 52.199, showing the second-best bars routine of the day with a 13.166. Rounding out the top eight were Banba Sari in fourth with a 51.732 in addition to tying Sugihara for the top vault score, Tokita Akiho in fifth with a 51.465, Takezawa Kaoruko in sixth with a 51.266, Honda Sayaka in seventh with a 51.199 while topping the bars field with a 13.2, and Iwasaki Natsume in eighth with a 51.099.

A total of 50 women ended up competing here, including 2024 Olympian Okamura Mana on every apparatus but bars. She struggled a bit on vault and floor, but had the best performance of the day on beam, earning a 14.033.

Complete Results

All-Japan Senior Championships | Men’s All-Around
All-Japan Senior Championships | Women’s All-Around
Super Specialist Championships

Article by Lauren Hopkins