KITAKYUSHU -- Mai Murakami will be taking a nice parting gift into retirement -- the world gold medal in the women's floor exercise.
Murakami regained the title she held in 2017, then announced she was retiring from the sport on the final day of the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Kitakyushu on Sunday.
"I am retiring," Murakami told the crowd at the Kitakyushu City Gym. "I hope I was able to give you a bit of excitement."
Murakami earlier secured the bronze medal in the balance beam, in which compatriot Urara Ashikawa became Japan's first world champion in the apparatus in 67 years.
For the 25 year-old-Murakami, the emotional victory was not without drama. After finishing her routine, she was ranked second behind Angelina Melnikova, representing the Russian Gymnastics Federation.
But an inquiry at the request of the Japanese side resulted in her score being amended upward, giving her 14.066 points.
Melnikova, with whom Murakami shared the bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics, took the silver at 14.000. American Leanne Wong was third at 13.833.
Murakami sent the crowd into a frenzy right from the start of her routine. She opened with her trademark Silivas, a high-scoring double back flip with two rotations that she has been performing since she was in sixth grade.
The crowd then clapped in time for the minute and a half that her performance lasted.
That Murakami made it onto the stage is testament to her drive and determination. When the Tokyo Olympics were postponed for a year due to the pandemic, she had told her mother at one time that she wanted to quit.
She stuck it out, however, and managed to take the bronze in the floor with a satisfying performance. "It was a performance to end a career on," she said looking back.
But there was something missing -- a crowd to see it. A surge of infections this summer led Olympic organizers to ban spectators from almost all venues. That left Murakami less than satisfied.
Heading into the Kitakyushu worlds, the first major international competition in Japan since the Olympics, Murakami suffered a setback when she injured her left ankle. But she bit the bullet and kept up her training.
"Normally, you could see on Mai's face when she feels pain, but now she kept smiling, even though you know she had to be in pain," said former national team member Rie Tanaka.
A Tokyo native, Murakami started gymnastics at age 4 and with her powerful legs, quickly established herself as a future star. She was a member of the Japan squad that finished fourth in the team event at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, and in 2018, won the all-round silver medal at the world championships, marking the highest-ever finish in that event for a Japanese woman.
On Sunday night, the smile was mixed with a few tears of emotion after a historic performance.
"This is the best present to myself," Murakami said. "It's a gold medal that brings up a lot of memories."
Ashikawa bounded into Japan gymnastics history when she won the balance beam with a score of 14.100, well ahead of silver medalist Pauline Schaefer-Betz of Germany with 13.800 and Murakami with 13.733.
Ashikawa's performance came immediately after China's Luo Rui, the top scorer in the qualifying round, had fallen during her routine. She would place fifth.
"If I nail it, I can jump right into first," Ashikawa said she thought. Taking a positive view pushed out any nerves she might have been feeling.
During qualifying, she lost her balance on one of her jumps, but this time there was no wavering as she turned in a near-flawless routine to achieve her goal of a score in the 14s and become Japan's first world balance beam champion since Keiko Tanaka in 1954.
"All my hard work paid off," Ashikawa said. "I'm really happy."
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