Nikita Nagornyy of the Russian Federation won the all-around title with 88.772 points after a fascinating tussle with his teammate Artur Dalaloyan and Chinese gymnast Xiao Ruoteng. 

Nagornyy competed with strong and steady routines, showing exemplary consistency throughout the competition. A lengthy delay due to technical problems with the scoring system before his first routine on floor did not seem to hamper him.

Nagornyy was in second place for the first three rotations, behind Dalaloyan after the first, then Xiao Ruoteng after the second, and Sam Mikulak of the USA after the third. But by the end of rotation four he had taken the lead, and never looked back.

“Basically the gold medal means that I have had good training,” he put it simply, adding “I don’t have any more emotions because we put all of them into our team competition two days ago.”

His compatriot Artur Dalaloyan came second with 87.165 despite a low landing on his vault. Last year’s all-around silver medalist Xiao Ruoteng showed great performances on floor, pommel horse and parallel bars, scoring over 15 points on each, but came to grief on his last apparatus, high bar, where he fell off.

“I decided to add some difficulties on my high bar routine,” he explained, as an attempt to close the gap between himself and Nagornyy. “Unfortunately I had a mistake. I am quite impressed by Nikita Nagornyy’s performance today.”

Xiao’s fourth-place finish allowed the Ukrainian, Oleg Verniaiev, who had been quietly sitting just behind the leaders throughout the competition, the chance to take the bronze medal. 

It was an outcome that delighted the exhausted veteran. “I don’t have emotions because I am so tired. But I am happy.” The 2016 Olympic all-around silver medalist had never won a world all-around medal before.

Menawhile, Sam Mikulak, the leader after three rotations, finished in seventh place after a fall on his Busnari element on pommel horse.

Finally, Andreas Toba of Germany enjoyed the support of the home crowd. The all-around German national champion showed good routines but said he could not push forward, because he was too nervous during the whole competition. He finished in 19th place.

“It was not that easy for me,” Toba explained, ”but I feel joy and gratitude for what I experienced here.”