Whitlock misses out on making history

Max Whitlock missed out on making history by the narrowest of margins at the World Gymnastics Championships in Doha when he was pipped to pommel gold by China’s Xiao Ruoteng yesterday.

A tiny error made all the difference for Whitlock, bidding to become the first British gymnast to win three consecutive world titles, as he tied Ruoteng on 15.166 but missed out on gold due to a lower execution score.

Nevertheless his silver medal completed a timely return to form for the double Olympic champion, who had also been denied gold at this year’s Commonwealth Games and European Championships.

Whitlock said: “I can’t not be happy with a world silver medal but at the same time I’m slightly gutted. It’s a hard emotion to try to get my head around.

“I’m not going to look at it as a negative. I can take a lot of confidence from how things went this week.

“I didn’t fall off or muck up, it was a tiny error that cost me and that’s the thing with gymnastics.”

Xiao, who was deposed as world-around champion by tie-break on Tuesday, had set the bar high for Whitlock by nailing a routine which drew a significantly higher score than his own qualifying mark.

Despite going home without the title he has held since his historic first world title win in Glasgow in 2015, the form which enabled Whitlock to reach the top has re-emerged this week in Doha and he can look towards Tokyo 2020 with renewed confidence.

Missing out on retaining his world title via a tie-break is a far cry from Whitlock’s issues at the European Championships in Glasgow in September, when he fluffed his lines completely, standing up on the pommel and missing out on a medal.

Whitlock will continue to work on improving his floor and pommel routines in the near future, although in reality he will add apparatus – likely the high and parallel bars – in order to be competitive for the Great Britain team in Tokyo.

Becky Downie suffered more agony in her quest for a first major individual medal, after she fell midway through her uneven bars routine and finished seventh of the eight finalists.

Downie has returned from 18 months out due to injury and is soon to undergo another ankle operation.