Uche Eke failed on Saturday to advance to the All-Around final from subdivision 2 of the artistic gymnastics event at the ongoing Olympic Games in Tokyo.
The 23-year-old, who was making his Olympic Games debut, scored a total of 74.765 points to place 36th at the Ariake Gymnastics Centre.
This was after six routines —- floor exercise, pommel horse, rings, vault, parallel bars and horizontal bar —- by the group of 66 performers where four of them failed to finish.
In this men’s qualification round, Eke scored 13.433 in vault, 12.233 in parallel bars, 11.500 in horizontal bar, 12.833 in floor exercise, 12.866 in pommel horse and 11.900 in rings.
With 24 of them needed to qualify for the final, Eke’s performance could not help him, even with qualification extending to the 30th-placed Omar Mohamed of Egypt who scored 78.866 points.
Mohamed was successful because a maximum of two qualifiers were allowed per national Olympic committee (NOC).
Six of the gymnasts already had two of their teammates qualifying for the final, and therefore had to drop out.
Japan’s Daiki Hashimoto led the qualifiers with a total score of 88.531 points.
Artistic gymnastics is one of three disciplines in the gymnastics sport, with trampoline and rhythmic gymnastics being the others.
The six routines are all medal events and their finals will hold next week.
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Eke speaks
Meanwhile, Eke, says he has taken his dashed dream as it came and will be looking to what the future holds for him.
Eke’s dream of an Olympic medal ended prematurely on Saturday after he failed to qualify for the final of the artistic gymnastics event at the Ariake Gymnastics Centre in Tokyo.
Eke, while speaking with NAN moments after the event, expressed mixed reactions, saying while he was disappointed not to have made the top eight, he was happy to have gained the experience.
“The competition as a whole was a great experience and I am so excited that I had the chance to participate.
“I went through a long process and hard work to get here and I am so happy that I had the chance to show off a bit.
“The competition didn’t go how I would have wanted it to but you win some, you lose some. That’s how life is and I am used to that.
“For some it was their best day ever and for others it wasn’t,” he said.
Eke however said his plan now was to get back to training, work harder and “figure things out”.
“I lost this one but I won’t lose the next one,” he said.