Tokyo - National men’s artistic gymnast Jeremiah Loo Phay Xing is not overly perturbed about finishing 62nd out of 66 competitors at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as he has his sights set on the 2024 Paris edition, instead.
Jeremiah, who is making his Olympic debut, finished the men’s individual all-around qualification round at the Ariake Gymnastics Centre in Tokyo with a total of 67.498 points.
The 23-year-old had earlier finished 19th out of 22 gymnasts in subdivision one of the qualifiers, scoring 13.100 points in the floor exercise, pommel horse (12.266 pts), rings (7.700 pts), vault (12.466 pts), parallel bars (10.200 pts) and horizontal bar (11.766 pts).
Only the top 24 ranked gymnasts, with a maximum of two representatives per country, qualify for the all-around final on Wednesday.
Jeremiah attributed his dismal performance and early exit from the Tokyo Olympics to the extremely short preparation time he had for the Games.
“I only knew about my participation in the Tokyo Olympics a month before the Games began.
“I still aim (to qualify) for the next Olympics (Paris 2024), and I hope to do much better there,” he said in a video clip posted on the Olympic Council of Malaysia's Facebook page today.
However, the Penangite said he had given his best and described the experience of competing in the world’s biggest multi-sports Games as simply “awesome”.
He added that he had also learned a lot from other athletes in Japan and was elated to share the same stage with the world’s best gymnasts. – Bernama July 25, 2021
