Uchimura grabs men's all-around gold, Leyva bronze for U.S.

London, England – In Monday's team competition, a score change on Kohei Uchimura's pommel horse routine lifted Japan into a silver medal.

Two night's later in the individual all-around, there was no complaint with his score.

The three-time all-around world champion captured Olympic gold in the event for the men on Wednesday, while American Danell Leyva picked up a bronze medal.

Uchimura entered Saturday's qualifier as the favorite to win the gold medal, but ranked ninth thanks to a pair of falls -- including one on the pommel horse -- and also had a miscue in Japan's silver-medal team performance on Monday. However, he was solid all through Wednesday's competition, taking the lead for good following his vault routing in the third rotation en route to a 92.690 score. That was good enough for the top spot despite a mistake during his last event, the floor exercise.

"I have been world champion in the all-around three times in a row, but this is an different feeling. The Olympics are only once in four years so I have been waiting for this moment," stated Uchimura.

It was Uchimura at the center of some controversy on Monday. Japan looked as if it would fail to medal in the team competition following his score of 13.466 on the pommel horse. However, his coach handed in an inquiry to the Superior Jury, who reviewed the routine and raised it by 0.700 points after failing to give him credit for a landing.

On Wednesday, the 2008 Beijing Games silver medalist posted the highest score on the vault, and was second overall on rings, pommel horse and horizontal bar.

Uchimura finished 1.659 points clear of silver medal recipient Marcel Nguyen of Germany. He had qualified seventh on Saturday and was pushed forward by an event high-tying score on the parallel bars. Nguyen, who had never finished higher than eighth at the world championships in the all-around, also posted the highest score on the rings.

His silver was Germany's first medal in this event since the 1936 Berlin Games.

"Well, I'm over the moon and very surprised," said Nguyen. "I had not expected to have a silver medal and be sitting here in a press conference. I've been dreaming of this moment since I was a little boy. I'm very happy."

Leyva, meanwhile, managed a bronze despite having earlier secured the top qualifying score. He matched Nguyen's score on the parallel bars and had the top mark on horizontal, but logged just a 13.500 on the pommel horse thanks to some struggles on his dismount to dip his overall score down to 90.698, just behind Nguyen's mark of 91.031.

"My arms were shaking a little, when I got to the dismount I didn't have enough strength, but I used it as a kick in the butt to do the rest of my events," said Leyva, who battled back from 17th place after three rotations.

It was the pommel horse rotation in which he and teammate John Orozco fell during at Monday's team competition that saw the U.S. finish fifth.

Orozco came in eighth on Wednesday, while No. 2 qualifier David Belyavskiy of Russia ended fifth behind Mykola Kukesnkov of the Ukraine. Belyavskiy's chance at a medal were dashed when he stepped out of bounds twice during his floor exercise.