The 2025 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships showdown began at the Indonesia Arena on October 19 with the men’s qualifier event. While American fans waited with bated breath to witness their favourites grab a win in foreign soil, the event started on the wrong foot for the US Men’s team. Asher Hong had to step back from the championship on the very first day as he sustained an unfortunate ankle injury. However, as the event proceeded, the fans received further disappointment. This time, with the delays in judgment. 

Recently, a journalist and sports content creator expressed dissatisfaction regarding the match being stuck in slow motion, thanks to the judging delays. Usually, the format that is followed for the men’s all-around event is four rotations of six gymnasts. But this year, probably to speed up the event, the men’s all-around is being run with six rotations of four gymnasts. Yet, the change has reportedly failed to be of any help.

Scott Bregaman, who is an avid follower and reporter of the sport, recently took to his social media handle and shared how the judging pace has led to unexpected and avoidable delays, slowing down the meet despite the new rotation format. He wrote in an X post, “The judging in the men’s all-around is so slow so far that despite going to six rotations of four (instead of four of six), the meet doesn’t feel any faster than normal 😵‍💫”. 

The new format was supposed to make the event move along more quickly. But because the judges are taking so long to deliver scores, the pace of the meet still feels just as slow as before. But despite the ongoing controversy, a 24-year-old gymnast from Narita, Chiba, Japan, notched up another milestone in his career.

Japan’s Daiki Hashimoto clinches men’s all-around gold at world championships

Daiki Hashimoto was coming in with a lot of expectations, and the seasoned campaigner from Japan did not let his country down. Delivering a phenomenal display of skill and finesse, Daiki clinched the all-around gold medal this Wednesday, October 22, 2025. 

The 24-year-old had quite a stiff competition. China’s Zhang Boheng emerged as Daiki’s biggest challenger of the evening. However, with a gritty display, it was Daiki who took pole position with a cumulative score of 85.131. Boeng, despite being impressive, fell short as he scored 84.333, winning silver. Switzerland’s Noe Seifert completed the podium with an 82.831 score, taking bronze. However, for a significant amount of time, the crowd saw a thrilling competition between Daiki, Boeng, and the 2021 all-around champion, Oka Shinnosuke. 

Interestingly, for a major part of the competition, the trio went neck and neck with only half a point separating them. Unfortunately, in the fifth rotation, Shinnosuke missed a combination tumbling pass on the floor, paving the way for the other two to nudge ahead. Surely, Hashimoto was elated after his win. He told reporters, “I’m really happy to have won the World Championships today, especially because I couldn’t win the individual gold medal in Paris last year.” As a matter of fact, this was Daiki’s third straight all-around crown, having won twice back in 2022 and 2023. Thus, with the 24-year-old fluttering the Japanese flag high, it remains to be seen what more he has to offer in the coming days.