Three-time all-around world champion Kohei Uchimura sent his London Olympic rivals a timely reminder of his mercurial talents on Sunday, capturing his fifth consecutive title at the national all-around gymnastics championships.
Dubbed "Japan's beautiful machine" by German rival Philipp Boy, Uchimura, the only Japanese gymnast to have already booked his ticket to London, delivered a solid performance to score 92.650 points ahead of Kenya Kobayashi (90.800) and Shogo Nonomura (90.050).
"I wasn't really thinking about a fifth straight title and just was trying to perform with care. I was trying to treat this championships as though a place on the Olympic team was at stake," said Uchimura, modestly playing down his achievement.