Flash Quotes: Men’s Horizontal Bar Final

Brody Malone (USA) – gold 

On what it means to be world champion: 
“I haven’t really thought about it yet. It’s pretty incredible, especially going up against a field like that.  

“You’ve got Daiki (Hashimoto, JPN), who’s the Olympic champion on high bar and then he won high bar last year at the Worlds, so to come out on top of that field is pretty awesome and special. 

“This is definitely the icing on the cake. This week was pretty rough for us. The prelims and team finals weren’t great. I did a little better in the all-around finals, and it just seemed like we were building up. This was a good one to end on.” 

On completing the handstands in his routine after struggling with them in recent competitions:
“I knew I needed to go out there and go for the handstands. You can’t get complacent on stuff like that. That was my main goal for this routine, hit both of those handstands.” 

On whether he thought his score would be enough for gold: 
“Well Daiki still had to go, Zhang Boheng (CHN) still had to go, I know both of them scored higher than me in qualifications, so I knew they could do it. I was definitely nervous, my heart was pounding out there. 

“After I’d been I was like, ‘OK, Daiki’s going to kill it and then probably win’. But he messed up one of his connections, and then he had a little bit of an odd bend coming out of his Liukin (a move named after 1988 Olympic champion Valeri Liukin).  

“But anything can happen, that’s sport.” 

On whether he brought more out of himself than he expected: 
“I just go out and do gymnastics. My goal for that routine was to do what I’ve been doing in the gym and hit handstands, and it happened, so that’s good. 

“Any time you get to compete for team USA and bring home any medal is great, but a gold is pretty awesome.” 

On how he recovered after the all-around: 
“Yesterday I just did a stretch in the hotel and I didn’t even go into the gym at all. I was kind of a mental break, but I still came here and watched Donnell (Whittenberg) and Steve (Nederoscik) and the girls.” 

On how he will celebrate, after eating a ramen after competition earlier in the week:
“I don’t know, I might go back and get some more ramen.” 

Hashimoto Daiki (JPN) – silver 

On adding another silver medal to his collection: 
“I am a bit disappointed about the silvers but it was good to be in the finals and prepare for them one-by-one. Now I have to take one more step to win gold. 

“I will try my best to work on that for next year and then the Olympics in 2024.” 

On his routine: 
“It wasn’t perfect, but that happens. I won the all-around so that was a great accomplishment after losing it last year. That was the highlight of my week.” 

Arthur Mariano (BRA) – bronze 

On taking the bronze medal:
“I’m very happy and very emotional. I worked a lot to be here in this position. I always believed in the process – sometimes I doubt myself, but you must always believe in the process and then you can do it.” 

On being first to compete on horizontal bar:
“When we saw the draw, we knew it was not an easy position. I just had to do my routine and put pressure on the other guys.” 

On his friendship with Rebeca Andrade (BRA) and the rest of the Brazilian women’s team:
“We grew up together, we’re really good friends. I often watch the girls training. Sometimes I spend more time with the women’s team than the men’s team and I hope our friendship will continue all our lives.” 

Zhang Boheng (CHN) – 5th 

On his performance:
“I am always hungry for a gold medal when I have a chance. I felt satisfied with my performance today, especially with my flying skill, all except for the dismount. That really hurts.” 

On his injured foot:
“My foot hurts really badly now. It actually happened before the all-around final, and I had a bad swelling after hitting the bar.  

“That’s why I had to pull out from the floor final yesterday. And it kept getting worse over the last few days.” 

On his future plans:
“Get some rest first, definitely. I think I have grown a little after this championship and afterwards hopefully I can improve my ability.” 

WGC22 News cl/vc/eoc/sb/jh/mb