TOKYO — In the instant before the judges announced the winner, Russian and Japanese men’s gymnasts were united by two thoughts: This was the longest instant of all time, and Japan would win.
Nikita Nagornyy, of Russia, believed officials would put their thumb on the scale for the home country. Takeru Kitazono, of Japan, was certain that his teammate Daiki Hashimoto had nailed his horizontal bar routine beyond what Nagornyy could match on the floor.
They were both wrong. The timing of the routines meant that Nagornyy knew before he began that he needed a 14.564 to push his team to gold.