Star: Jake Jarman
(Picture: PA)Max Whitlock has already predicted that Jake Jarman will join him as a future Olympic champion.
On the evidence of these Commonwealth Games, Paris in two years’ time could prove to be his showpiece after picking up his third gold medal of Birmingham 2022 in the men’s floor final.
The 20-year-old had already won gold in both the team event and the all-around final and made it three golds from three with a routine he described as “hands down the best I’ve done in my gymnastics career”.
He completed his routine with a triple-twisting tumble, which he likened to flying for a score of 14.666, the first of four gold medals for Team England in Monday’s session.
He was a class apart from the rest of the field with a far more complex routine to give him a score half a point more than the next best, Canada’s Felix Dolci.
“I’ve done a lot of floor qualifications and I’ve messed up quite a few times,” he said. “To be able to make a final has been amazing but to deliver the routine when it really matters means so much to me. It’s a very new experience for me. I’ve never had a competition where I’ve done this well.”
Jarman is the youngest member of the men’s team at these Games and the only one without any Olympic or Commonwealth experience.
But in the absence of Whitlock, taking a hiatus from the sport since his Olympic gold medal, the youngster has stepped forward as England’s premier gymnast.
Jarman has a good shot at a fourth gold in the vault on Tuesday in which he recorded the highest score of all the qualifiers.
Teammate Joe Fraser has had the worst possible build-up to the Games. He suffered a ruptured appendix five weeks ago and then fractured his foot two weeks later, arriving into the athletes’ village in a protective boot.
Despite that, he won gold on the pommel horse as pre-event favourite Rhys McClenaghan made a mistake and had to make do with silver.
The other English golds went to Courtney Tulloch, who defended his rings title from the Gold Coast four years ago, and Georgia-Mae Fenton on the uneven bars.
