AFP, Montreal
Britain’s Max Whitlock captured his second consecutive pommel horse title and Japan’s Kenzo Shirai took his third floor exercise crown as defending champions dominated Saturday at the World Gymnastics Championships.
All five apparatus titles decided at Montreal’s Olympic Stadium went to those who had taken crowns in 2015 at Glasgow in the previous edition of the worlds.
Whitlock, the reigning Olympic champion, defended his title with 15.441 points to 15.100 for Russia’s David Belyavskiy. China’s Xiao Ruoteng was third, .034 further adrift.
The 24-year-old Englishman, also the reigning Olympic floor exercise champion, was third at Rio in the all-around and took 2012 London Olympic bronze in team and pommel horse.
Shirai, third in Thursday’s men’s all-around competition, kept his crown with 15.633 points, defeating Israel’s Dolgopyat Artem by 1.1 with American Moldauer Yul third on 14.500.
Defending world champion Shirai, a Rio Olympic champion in the team event who also took a bronze medal last year in the vault, became the youngest man to win a floor exercise world crown four years ago at Antwerp with a title at age 17, then followed up with another world gold in 2015 at Glasgow.
