ANTWERP, BELGIUM – Kohei Uchimura showed he is the overwhelming favorite to win a record fourth all-around world gymnastics championship by qualifying for Thursday’s final by a big margin.

Uchimura also qualified for the weekend floor exercise, high bar and parallel bar finals on Tuesday. The Olympic champion is trying to become the first male or female gymnast to win four all-around world titles and cement his status as the greatest gymnast in history.

With only one of four qualifying groups left, Japanese teammate Ryohei Kato moved into third place with 89.474 points, still trailing Uchimura’s big 91.924. Sam Mikulak of the United States was second with 89.532.

Japan, China and the United States led qualifying, while Russia disappointed with David Belyavskiy as its top performer in 14th place for the all-around, showing there is no easy replacement for injured University Games winner Mykola Kuksenkov.

The qualifying marks are thrown out for the final, making Uchimura’s show of force only an exercise in psychological domination.

The reigning Olympic all-around champion produced his traditional show of elegance and power to sweep past early leader Mikulak, the U.S. champion, to top the standings.

Though Uchimura holds the men’s record for all-around world titles, he still shares it with retired women’s gymnast Svetlana Khorkina of Russia.

For good measure, he could win more medals in the apparatus finals. In the high bar, he goes against Olympic champion Epke Zonderland of the Netherlands, Mikulak and Fabian Hambuechen of Germany, the silver medalist at the London Games.