United States' Chris Brooks performs on the horizontal bar during the artistic gymnastics men's individual all-around final at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016.... (Associated Press) 
 
 United States' Chris Brooks performs on the horizontal bar during the artistic gymnastics men's individual all-around final at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016. (AP Photo/Morry Gash) (Associated Press) 
 
 RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Trailing by nearly a point entering the final rotation and his chances of a second Olympic all-around title very much in jeopardy, Kohei Uchimura pondered what for the last seven years has been unthinkable. 
 
 He thought about losing. 
 
 "I felt really close to admitting that it might be really difficult," Uchimura said. 
 
 It was. It just wasn't impossible. Not for the greatest men's gymnast of all time. Delivering a fearless high bar with a gold medal on the line, the Japanese superstar put all the pressure on Ukraine's Oleg Verniaiev. And when Verniaiev's routine minutes later ended with a small hop and an ever-so slight lean to the left on his dismount, Uchimura was back where he's always been while Verniaiev shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 What are you gonna do? It's Uchimura. Maybe that's why Verniaiev couldn't stop smiling even though Uchimura's total of 92.365 was less than a tenth ahead of Verniaiev's 92.266. 
 
 "I think this is really the coolest thing in the world," Verniaiev said. "The very fact we can compete with him is amazing. Today we managed to put on an amazing show." 
 
 One that ended the way it always has since Uchimura captured his first world championship in 2009: with the supremely elegant Uchimura standing atop the podium with a gold medal around his neck and the Japanese anthem playing over the loudspeakers. 
 
 "This really was the trickiest for me," Uchimura said after becoming the first man in nearly 50 years to repeat as Olympic champion. 
 
 Looked like it. Verniaiev led from the second rotation on, answering every time it seemed Uchimura was ready to take over. When Uchimura drilled a 15.566 on vault, Verniaiev responded with a 15.5. Verniaiev's precise parallel bars routine — his body pencil straight as he pressed into a handstand, his legs seemingly duct taped together — put him up by .901 points heading into high bar. When Uchimura's high-flying set ended with a stuck landing and a 15.8, Verniaiev needed a 14.9 to win Ukraine's first all-around Olympic title. 
 
 Instead, he got a 14.8. And he seemed kind of pumped up about it. 
 
 "I'm quite happy I managed to make Kohei very nervous," Verniaiev said with a laugh. 
 
 Max Whitlock earned Great Britain's first all-around medal in 108 years by taking bronze, just ahead of Russia's David Belyavskiy. American Sam Mikulak recovered from a fall on vault to rally to seventh. Chris Brooks finished 14th while capping a memorable rise through the qualifying process to make his first Olympic team at 29. 
 
 Really, though, the night belonged to Verniaiev and Uchimura. Their two-hour duel provided the closest call in Uchimura's run of two Olympic crowns and six world all-around championships. 
 
 "There's only the tiniest gap, a 0.1 gap," Uchimura said. "I really have no confidence I should say, that I can beat Oleg." 
 
 Verniaiev equated Uchimura to the gymnastics version of Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt, territory the ever gracious Uchimura shied away from immediately. 
 
 "Everybody in the world knows these names," he said. "But Kohei Uchimura? Who is this man? I don't think I'm well known in the world." 
 
 There's time. Uchimura will take a break following the Rio Games but has no plans to retire. The next Summer Olympics are back home in Tokyo. The opportunity to finish things off in front of his fellow countrymen — and his daughter — will be far too attractive to pass up. 
 
 "By then my daughter would be old enough so that I really hope I will be able to show her what her father can do," he said. 
 
 Here's the answer: pretty much whatever he wants. 
 
 Uchimura arrived in Rio as the overwhelming favorite to back up the all-around gold he won in London four years ago. Yet he stressed repeatedly the only thing that mattered was the team gold. That triumphant moment happened on Monday when Japan soared to victory. 
 
 While Uchimura was exulting in triumph, Verniaiev was basically just warming up. Ukraine qualified for the team final but basically gave up when Maksym Semiankiv couldn't participate in the finals due to injury. Rather that put in a replacement athlete to fill in for Semiankiv, Ukraine instead just entered two athletes instead of three, dooming whatever medal chances they had. 
 
 Verniaiev shrugged off the decision and insisted his team did not tank on purpose so he could prep for the all-around. 
 
 "We never blew a single contest," he said, calling it a "silly and unpredictable situation." ||||| RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Kohei Uchimura left it late - very, very late - before a heart-stopping final horizontal bar routine lifted him into the pantheon of greats as he became the first gymnast in 44 years to win back-to-back Olympic all around titles on Wednesday. 
 
 2016 Rio Olympics - Artistic Gymnastics - Final - Men's Individual All-Around Final - Rio Olympic Arena - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - 10/08/2016. Kohei Uchimura (JPN) of Japan poses with his gold medal, REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach 
 
 In the end, all it took was a razor-thin 0.099 of a point to separate triumph and disaster. 
 
 A day after the American women romped to the team title by more than eight points, Uchimura, Oleg Verniaiev and Britain’s Max Whitlock provided the kind of edge-of-the-seat drama that tore everyone’s nerves to shreds. 
 
 Going into the final round, it seemed as if the unthinkable would happen and the man who has been unbeaten in the event since picking up a silver in the 2008 Olympics would be knocked off his perch by Verniaiev. 
 
 In a high-quality contest devoid of falls and spills by the top contenders, Verniaiev led the standings from the third rotation and held a 0.901 of a point lead over the Japanese great ahead of their final apparatus, the horizontal bar. 
 
 When Uchimura, who fell from the bar during qualifying, earned 15.800 with his high-flying routine that drew a chorus of “oohs” and “ahhs” each time he performed one of his four release and catch maneuvers, it left Verniaiev needing to overhaul a target of 14.899. 
 
 Having amassed 15.133 in qualifying, the 22-year-old Ukrainian knew the gold was within touching distance. 
 
 Verniaiev raised his fist after completing his dismount with a wobble and clutched the Ukrainian badge on his vest as he urged the crowd to cheer him as he waited for his total to flash up on the giant screen in the Rio Olympic Arena. 
 
 When a score of 14.800 denied him the top prize by the narrowest of margins, he gave a rueful smile and raised both palms upward as if to say “What more could I do?” 
 
 There is not much you can do when you run into a man who is fast running out of fingers to count the number of all around titles he owns. 
 
 “Six world championships and two Olympic wins in eight years is a great victory. I’ve raised the bar,” said the champion, who unfurled eight fingers one-by-one to confirm his haul. 
 
 Verniaiev simply could not have done more. 
 
 “I was so close to gold... but I’m quite happy I managed to make Kohei very, very nervous,” quipped the Ukrainian. 
 
 “He is the Michael Phelps of gymnastics. Competing with a guy who has not given up his title since 2009 is amazing. I just want to be as close as possible to beat him. I’ll beat him next time.” 
 
 The only consolation for Verniaiev was that he had pushed King Kohei like no other challenger has during his remarkable reign - with Wednesday’s victory marking the slimmest margin of all his eight global triumphs. 
 
 “He is the king of gymnastics. But I have come as close as possible to him as nobody has before,” summed up Verniaiev. 
 
 Close... but not close enough. 
 
 Uchimura became only the fourth man, and the first since his compatriot Sawao Kato in 1972, to capture successive golds in the event that tests skills across six apparatus. The 27-year-old, who also won the team title two days ago, joins Kato as the only men to win three Olympic all around medals, with both owning two golds and a silver. 
 
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 Uchimura won with a total of 92.365. 
 
 The battle for bronze was equally compelling as Whitlock trumped Russia’s David Belyavskiy by a negligible 0.143 of a point to become the first British man in 108 years to win an all around medal with a total of 90.641.
– Japan's Kohei Uchimura, widely considered the greatest men's gymnast in history, won the gold medal over Ukraine's Oleg Verniaiev by less than one-tenth of a point Wednesday night. Their two-hour duel provided the closest call in Uchimura's run of two Olympic crowns and six world all-around championships, the AP reports. "There's only the tiniest gap, a 0.1 gap," said Uchimura, who finished with 92.365 to Verniaiev's 92.266 but was behind by nearly a point entering the final rotation. "I really have no confidence, I should say, that I can beat Oleg." The win makes Uchimura, who scored a silver in 2008, the first gymnast in 44 years to pick up back-to-back all-around Olympic titles, reports Reuters.