Men's Pommel Horse Shin Je-hwan Wins Gold Medal... First Triumph in 9 Years Since Yang Hak-seon (Comprehensive)

Korean male national gymnastics team member Shin Jae-hwan. [Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] Shin Jae-hwan (23, Jecheon City Hall), a member of the Korean national gymnastics team, won the gold medal in the vault final. This is a remarkable achievement, marking the first gold medal in nine years since Yang Hak-seon won gold at the 2012 London Olympics.

On the 2nd, Shin Jae-hwan won the gold medal in the men's vault final at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics held at the Ariake Gymnastics Centre in Japan. He scored an average of 14.783 points over two attempts.

Shin Jae-hwan tied with Denis Ablyazin (Russian Olympic Committee), but won the gold medal thanks to performing a much higher difficulty skill worth 6.0 points. Shin attempted difficulty 6.0 and 5.6 skills in the first and second attempts respectively, while Ablyazin performed difficulty 5.6 skills in both attempts.

As the sixth competitor, Shin Jae-hwan attempted the 6.0 difficulty skill "Yonekura" in the first attempt, scoring 14.733 points. In the second attempt, he scored 14.833 points with the difficulty 5.6 skill "Yeo 2." This skill was created by Yeo Hong-chul, Korea's first Olympic gymnastics medalist, in 1994 and named after himself.

Korean gymnastics has won a total of 11 medals in Olympic history, including the bronze medal won by Yeo Seo-jeong in women's gymnastics the previous day. This gold medal is the second since Yang Hak-seon in 2012.