Pokémon Go: Japan's top gymnast runs up £3,500 phone bill playing hit game | London Evening Standard

Pokémon Go: Japan's top gymnast runs up £3,500 phone bill playing hit gameChampion: Kohei Uchimura is the reigning gold medalistAP

A Japanese Olympic gymnast has run up a mobile bill of more than £3,500 while playing Pokémon Go in Rio de Janeiro.

Kohei Uchimura, a six-time world champion and the reigning Olympic champion in the men’s all-around competition, is believed to be among the greatest gymnasts of all time.

But he was landed with a 500,000 yen bill from his phone operator in Japan because of spiralling roaming charges while playing the hit augmented reality game in Brazil, according to reports from Japan.

However, the mobile network has now reduced his bill to a 3,000 yen ($30) daily all-you-can-use contract.

World craze: Pokemon hunters gather in the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden in TokyoAP

Uchimura has said he is equally committed to helping the Japanese team win gold as he is to retaining his own title.

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His trip to Rio also has the added prize of rare Pokémon which are much easier to catch in tropical climes.

In fact, some Pokemon fanatics believe that the enigmatic 151st Pokémon, Mew, may reside somewhere in South America.

It is based on the existence of laboratory documents linking Mew to the South American jungle in the original Pokémon Red and Blue games, launched in 1996.