Emotions ran high in the team gymnastics final. The Japanese had to wait until the very last routine to secure their eighth title in history, celebrating after overtaking their historic rivals, the Chinese, in the men's team event.

On Monday, Japan took gold to extend their record of winning the most coveted medal against China, who were the favourites after dominating the qualifying rounds, and only needed to keep their composure in the last of the six rotations to claim their first title since 2012.

However, China's Su Weide fell twice on the horizontal bar, leaving an unexpected opening for Japan to overtake them at the final moment. In a nail-biting finish at the Bercy Arena, Hashimoto, the all-around and horizontal bar champion at Tokyo 2020, found his form after a quiet night.

He produced a superb performance to bring Japan home by just 0.532 points with a total of 259.594 points to claim the title left vacant by the absence of Russia, who were banned from competing due to the war in Ukraine.

Hashimoto was joined on the podium by teammates Kazuma Kaya, Shinnosuke Oka, Wataru Tanigawa and Takaaki Sugino, who improved on their silver medal performance at the last Olympics.

This was the first of 14 artistic gymnastics titles up for grabs at Paris 2024, with all eyes on the United States team, led by multiple gold medallist Simone Biles, who will go for gold with the great American team on Tuesday.