Japanese gymnast Kohei Uchimura won a record fourth all-around world championship on Thursday, beating compatriot Ryohei Kato in a final that had a sense of inevitability about it from the start.
Olympic champion Uchimura opened with the best floor exercise of the six top qualifiers and never looked back.
He mixed his strength, poise and elegance on whichever apparatus he touched to reinforce his reputation as the greatest ever.
Fabian Hambuechen of Germany took bronze.
Even though Uchimura already held the men's record for all-around world titles, he still shared it overall with retired women's great Svetlana Khorkina of Russia, who also won three.
Uchimura also qualified for the weekend floor exercise, high bar and parallel bar finals.
In a thrilling final for the other medals, American Sam Mikulak made a decisive error late in his high bar routine and instead of challenging for silver he ended up in fifth place.
Hambuechen started out with a very weak pommel horse routine and an evening-long chase ended with a great floor exercise and bronze at the same time.
Uchimura finished with 91.990 points, almost a massive two points ahead of Kato, who had 90.032. Hambuechen finished with 89.332.
Britain's Max Whitlock was fourth with 89.031 while Mikulak crashed to fifth with 88.548.
For long though it looked like a fight between the two Japanese and Mikulak.
A difference in style was immediately visible on the opening floor exercise. While Mikulak was smiling broadly, pumping his fists and acknowledging the crowd, Uchimura left the floor seemingly subdued, gave a small nod and a handshake to his coach.
At the end though, after he landed from the high bar, Uchimura bowed, smiled broadly and also raised his fists.
Uchimura has been untouchable since winning the silver medal at the Beijing Olympics and, if his performance at the worlds is any preview, he could be for many years to come.
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