Tokyo, Japan, August 2, 2021: Korea’s Shin Jea-hwan became only the second Olympic gymnastics champion from his country when he won the men’s vault at Ariake Gymnastics Centre on Monday.
Shin, a fast-twist gymnast, followed his compatriot Yang Hak-seon – men’s vault champion at London 2012 – as Olympic gold medallist.
It was also Korea’s sixth gold medal of Tokyo 2020, following four in archery and one in fencing.
Shin and silver medallist Denis Abliazin from the Russian Olympic Committee both scored an average of 14.783 for their two vaults but Shin won the tiebreak due to the higher degree of difficulty on his first vault.
The 23-year-old Korean said he could have performed better but his training was affected by the pandemic.
“I was a bit frustrated about that, as my technique might have been perfect if I could have trained more,” he recalled, “but now, with this medal around my neck, I feel it is a reward for all the things that happened.”
Armenia's Artur Davtyan took the bronze on 14.733 ahead of the Philippines’ Carlos Yulo in fourth place on 14.716.