World floor exercise champion Kenzo Shirai pulled off a new technique Saturday, with the Japan Gymnastics Association set to apply for accreditation of what will likely be named the "Shirai 3" to the International Federation of Gymnastics.
The 19-year-old Shirai produced a double-backward somersault triple-twisting layout, ranked as a maximum-difficulty H-level move, to win the Toyota International Gymnastics Competition with 15.700 points, although he stumbled back a step and out of the line upon landing.
"It'll be a present (for the effort if accredited)," said Shirai, who was comfortable executing a G-level Ri Jong Song, the unstretched version of the new technique, that helped him claim his second world championship in late October in Scotland.