It’s a high five for young Jarman

Local gymnast Jake Jarman excelled on his international debut at the weekend.

The 14 year-old Deepings School student, amemberof Louis Smith’s Huntingdon Gymnastics Club, was in the England team that competed in the UK School Games at Loughborough.

And, although competing against older gymnasts - some as old as 18, the local teenage talent picked up no less than five medals.

Saturday was team event day featuring the men’s allround competition and qualifying for Sunday’ s individual final son the six pieces of apparatus.

And what a day it turned out to be for Jatman.

First he struck team gold as a very strong England line-up won by nine points from Scotland with Wales third.

What was even more impressive for him was claiming the bronze medal in the men’s all round competition behind Pavel Karnejenko of Scotland (81.15) and teammate Joe Cemlyn-Jones (80.95). He scored a personal best 79.95 which, given that Jarman still has another three years in which he could compete in this com- petition, was a fine effort.

And his super Saturday meant he qualified for no less than five of the six individual finals on day two.

First up was the floor and Jarman scored 13.80 to claim the silver medal. The pommel horse was next and another great score of 13.40 earned him a second silver.

His fifth medal of the weekend - a bronze - came on the parallel bars. He was seven thin the vault final and fifth on the high bar.

As a result of his efforts, Jar man has been invited to a GB training camp to be held in Switzerland at the beginning of October and he received his first GB call-up to compete in the Autumn Cup in Italy at the end of October.

Jake Jarman.