Kohei Uchimura, of Japan, falls from the horizontal bar during the men's artistic gymnastic qualifications at the 2020 Summer Olympics, on July 24, 2021, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

Champion gymnast Kohei Uchimura of Japan falls on high bar, will not reach event finals at Tokyo 2020 olympics

He bid to end his glittering Olympic career with glory at his home Games ended prematurely after he failed to qualify for the final of the only event he entered.

By Edward Era Barbacena

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japan's defending individual all-around Olympic champion Kohei Uchimura did not advance to the men's gymnastics apparatus finals Saturday at the Tokyo Olympics. Widely considered the greatest male gymnast of all time, the 32-year-old lost his grip during his horizontal bar routine in qualifying on Saturday,

Kohei Uchimura of Japan, who is a seven-time Olympic medallist, has failed to qualify for the final after falling off the high bar

Uchimura fell from the horizontal bar and scored only 13.866 points, not enough to finish among the top eight and advance to the final. A seven-time Olympic medallist, he was the first man in 44 years to win back-to-back all-around golds at Rio 2016.

Uchimura crashed to the mat in qualifying – an end to his hopes of reaching the final.

However, a nation was in mourning when Uchimura crashed to the mat during qualifying – an end to his hopes of reaching the final and an unfortunate end to his storied career.

The 32-year-old focused on the individual horizontal bar at his home Olympics instead of defending his titles in the team event and the individual all-around competition. He had been dealing with recent fitness struggles so chose that path to improve his chances of competing in Tokyo.

Uchimura made his Olympic debut at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where he finished with a silver in the individual all-around event. He won the event at the 2012 London Games and 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games to establish himself as one of the all-time greats.

He was also part of the Japanese team that won gold in Rio.

However, he experienced fitness issues following the 2016 Games, and his winning streak at all-around events was snapped at 40 after he withdrew from the 2017 world championships due to a left ankle injury.

He will retire after the Games.

Japan would have been hoping for a fairytale end to a gymnastics career that included 'King Kohei' leading his country to gold in the team event four years ago.

But his preparations had been far from ideal, only earning a place at the Games via a tiebreaker last month, and with injuries to both shoulders suffered in 2019 having ruled him out of a defence of his all-around crown.