Cuban Larduet injured, saves strength for apparatus finals

RIO DE JANEIRO, Cuba, Aug 11 (acn) Cuban Manrique Larduet could not overcome the first obstacle yesterday in the artistic gymnastics tournament of the 31st Olympic Games, but will be present in the apparatus finals today and his aspirations to a medal remain intact.

The 2015 universal runner-up had to abandon the all-around final event when he had only participated in rings (15.133) and vault (14.000), as he suffered a discomfort in his left ankle.
Doctors have worked hard and we decided him to be present in the competition, but he felt a little discomfort in the vault event and we decided to preserve him for the two apparatus finals (parallel and horizontal bar), Coach Carlos Gil told Cuban reporters in the Olympic Arena.
His performance in the all-around final event was long expected by the Caribbean delegation due to high expectations of getting a medal and that was one of the reasons that made him participate despite knowing he was limited.
Manrique totaled 86,814 points in the all-around qualifying event, also with problems in the vault, but he finally managed to be among the 24 finalists and also qualified to the parallel and horizontal bars apparatus finals.
Japanese Kohei Uchimura continued winning and although this time it was not so perfect, he made history by becoming the second man who achieved consecutive scepters in the individual all-around event.
London 2012 Olympic champion, the Japanese needed to close with an excellent performance in the horizontal bar (15,800) to reach 92,365 units, which earned him the victory.
Only his fellow countryman Sawao Kato had achieved the feat of reigning consecutively before, and it was in the already distant editions of Mexico 1968 and Munich 1972.
However the coronation should have left him a bittersweet taste because Ukrainian Oleg Verniaiev arrived with advantage to the last rotation and had a flawless performance which deserved more than the 14,800 points recorded, totaling thus 92,266 units, slightly lower than Uchimura.