Four golds now for the monkey bars kid!
FROM monkey bars to the golden star of England’s gymnastics team. It has been quite a journey for Jake Jarman, who yesterday expanded his title haul in Birmingham to a record-breaking four and then told the charming story of how it all started in his local park.
It was there, as a hyperactive child in Peterborough, that he was spotted swinging around by a coach and directed into the sport — a moment that has blossomed into him becoming the first male English gymnast in history to win four golds in a single Commonwealth Games. The latest of those, on the vault, came four days after the first in the team event, and adds to his wins on the floor and the marquee all-around discipline. Even in recognition of the modest spread of gymnastics excellence across the Commonwealth, it has been a fine tale of the unexpected from the youngest member of the English team.
Of its innocuous beginnings, Jarman, 20, said: ‘I was a very hyperactive kid and when I was seven or eight I was in the park. ‘I was just swinging from the monkey bars — I’d like to think I was good at the monkey bars. It was one of the things I loved to do when I was young. A gym coach was in the park at the same time as me and told my mum, “You should bring your kid to one of the local clubs”.’ On such advice, England acquired a talent that is now forecasted to contend on the bigger stages of the sport.
His level here was distinctly superior to those around him, demonstrated by the increased complexity of his two vault routines that meant he stuttered the landings on each and still amassed a score of 14.916, beating his team-mate Giarnni Regini-Moran into second and James Bacueti of Australia into bronze.
‘I’m absolutely delighted,’ Jarman said. ‘I’m going to find somewhere in my house to store the medals, maybe a nice glass cabinet if there’s space.’ Later, Joe Fraser took his collection to three golds with victory in the parallel bars, with Regini-Moran taking silver. Fraser went on to fall from the rings, which scuppered his own push for four titles just five weeks after rupturing his appendix and two weeks after breaking his foot.
Alice Kinsella, the daughter of former Republic of Ireland footballer Mark Kinsella, won the floor event ahead of team-mate Ondine Achampong, taking England’s final artistic gymnastics tally to 10 golds, five silvers and one bronze.