LEAD: Uchimura wins Olympic gold as Japan ends all-around drought By Frank Thomas, dpa Eds: Adds byline, details, quotes

London (dpa) - Kohei Uchimura lived up to his top billing at the London Games on Wednesday to give Japan its first men‘s gymnastics individual all-around Olympic gold medal in 28 years.

Uchimura had top-two finishes in four of the six rotations to top the bill with 92.690 points. Marcel Nguyen of Germany won the silver with 91.031 points, while parallel bars world champion Danell Leyva of the United States took bronze with 90.698 points.

It was the first Olympic gold for the 23-year-old Uchimura - the three-time reigning all-around world champion - following silver in the individual all-around in the 2008 Olympics, and team silver in 2008 and in London.

"I‘ve been aiming for this for a long time and now I have achieved it. It‘s a dream," said Uchimura, who won Japan‘s first gold in the event since Koji Gushiken‘s success at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles.

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

Nguyen was a surprise silver medallist for the Germans, who had originally set all hopes on Fabian Hambuechen to get a first medal in the event since Alfred Schwarzmann took gold 76 years ago at the 1936 Games in Berlin.

Nguyen started with a modest pommel horse showing, but fought his way back up the rankings and crowned the comeback with a stunning floor exercise as the last starter in the competition.

"It‘s amazing, it‘s a dream come true. I had a difficult start. I started on pommel horse and that‘s my weakest event, but it went better from apparatus to apparatus," he said.

"I knew that I had to be perfect to win a medal and I didn‘t think I would be perfect. But I‘m happy I was perfect today," he added. dpa bag hl amh