The exciting story of the all-around Gemini will continue. Zhang Boheng and Hashimoto Daihui are the "Fena" gold medals in the gymnastics industry | events | gymnastics
Yesterday, all gymnastics events at the Chengdu Universiade ended, and the Chinese team became the biggest winner, winning a total of 9 gold medals, 5 silver medals, and 1 bronze medal. However, this does not represent the current competitive landscape of world gymnastics.
The originally most valuable gold medal is undoubtedly in the men's individual all-around event, after all, Zhang Boheng, the "elder brother" of the Chinese team in this event, and Daihui Hashimoto, the Japanese, are currently the two strongest individual all-around athletes in the world's men's gymnastics. Unfortunately, the highly anticipated battle for the "all-powerful king" was not fully staged. Daiichi Hashimoto withdrew from the competition due to injury, and Chinese athlete Zhang Boheng won the gold medal with 86.733 points.
It is difficult to imagine what a peak match would have been if Daiichi Hashimoto had not retired due to injury. But even with regrets, their trip to the Universiade still left a beautiful story for the gymnastics world.
Zhang Boheng is currently studying at Hunan Normal University. He began to learn gymnastics at the age of 4, and the coach Qiu Qi who discovered it was the enlightenment coach of Chinese gymnast Li Xiaopeng. At the age of 9, Zhang Boheng entered the Hunan Provincial Team for training and began his career as an athlete. Now, this handsome young man has grown into a world-class gymnastics "all-around king".
Daiichi Hashimoto became the first Japanese athlete to win the World Championships men's all-around since Hirohira Uchimura, and at the age of 22, he is also the youngest in history to win both the Olympic and World Championships men's all-around championships.
More than a year ago, at the Kitakyushu World Championships, Zhang Boheng, who made his debut in an international competition, and Daiichi Hashimoto, who had just won the Olympic all-around championship at the time, began their first showdown. At that time, Hashimoto Dahui regarded Zhang Boheng as his main opponent. Zhang Boheng narrowly defeated Hashimoto Dahui with a slight advantage of 0.017 points. The two "synchronously" made mistakes on the Pommeled Horse. Finally, Zhang Boheng won the next four events with higher completion points.
Last year at the Liverpool World Championships, Zhang Boheng made his debut as the all-around defending champion, and his biggest challenge on the road to defending his title still came from Daiichi Hashimoto. In the end, the two teamed up again to dedicate an extremely exciting game. After six rounds of error free matches, Daiichi Hashimoto defeated Zhang Boheng by 0.433 points and won the all-around championship of the World Championships for the first time.
Within two years, the quality of the two leg matches from Kitakyushu to Liverpool has greatly improved, proving that the competition between versatile gymnasts is not about waiting for opponents to make mistakes, but about who can complete all the sets more perfectly. And this is the result of continuous healthy competition between the two.
At this Universiade, Zhang Boheng faced off against Hashimoto Daihui for the third time. Before the competition, Daiichi Hashimoto said, "If you want to become a top gymnast in the world, you must compete with Zhang Boheng."
Unfortunately, Dahui Hashimoto was injured when he dropped his equipment in the Pommeled Horse event and decided to withdraw from the competition. He could not help but shed tears at that time. In fact, in the previous free exercise, Daiichi Hashimoto had already made a mistake and only scored 13.233 points.
Some Chinese audiences do not have a favorable impression of Daiichi Hashimoto, a Japanese athlete, mainly because when he landed at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, he "extended one foot" and was able to surpass Chinese athlete Xiao Ruoteng to win the championship, causing huge controversy. Individual gymnastics fans still hold a grudge against the "unfair treatment" suffered by the Chinese team at that time, and often make sarcastic comments about Daiichi Hashimoto.
But for Zhang Boheng and Hashimoto Daihui, their relationship is a friend who is evenly matched on the field and cherishes each other off the field.
After Daiichi Hashimoto was injured in this competition, Zhang Boheng took the initiative to inquire about his injury and comforted his opponent, which moved many people. This also reminds me that after losing to Zhang Boheng at the Kitakyushu World Championships, Daiichi Hashimoto once praised Zhang Boheng's strength and shared photos of the two on social media.
23-year-old Zhang Boheng and 22-year-old Hashimoto Daihui see each other as their strongest competitors, and the two have also achieved mutual success. After the competition, Zhang Boheng evaluated Daihui Hashimoto in the following way: "I and Daihui Hashimoto have similar scores and movement styles in personal all-around events. In the international arena, there is a competitive and motivating relationship between us. Participating together will make the competition more exciting and promote each other." Daihui Hashimoto also mentioned Zhang Boheng's motivation for himself. "Playing against Zhang Boheng is a great motivation for me, and it's really great to compete against him."
Gymnastics fans refer to the two as the "Fena" of the gymnastics world. Next year's Paris Olympics, Zhang Boheng and Hashimoto Daihui will compete fiercely in the men's individual all-around gymnastics event. Prior to this, it is highly likely that the two will meet at the Hangzhou Asian Games or World Championships. "I hope that Hashimoto Daihui will recover soon and compete again in the next match," said Zhang Boheng.
