Uchimura shoulders the burden at worlds

The 21-year-old, a silver medallist at the Beijing Olympics, ended the day on 92.231 points, two-and-a-half ahead of American Jonathan Horton while Great Britain’s Daniel Purvis was in third.

Uchimura’s performance saw Japan end the day on top, with a total of 361.400 pts, four more than the United States and Great Britain - however the favourites China begin their campaign on Tuesday.

The biggest loser of the day was Romanian Marian Dragulescu, who said before the world championships that he was only at 70percent of his capacities and he has already lost any chance of defending his pommel horse and floor exercise titles.