Hand injury couldn’t halt nile
Nile Wilson shrugged off a hand injury to seize centre-stage at the Gold Coast, as he held off England team-mate James Hall in a dramatic finish to win the men’s all-around gymnastics title.
The 22-year-old nailed his concluding high-bar routine to claim his second gold of the Games after heading into the final piece of apparatus with just one fortieth-of-a-point separating him from Hall and Cypriot Marios Georgiou.
Wilson, who could win up to four more medals in the individual apparatus finals, roared and fist-bumped his way to success in a style he could scarcely have imagined when he made his Games debut four years ago in Glasgow.
Wilson’s triumph is all the more impressive given a lingering hand injury which severely restricts his pommel routine, the Leeds man’s score of 12.6 giving European bronze medallist Hall the early advantage.
But Wilson’s best two apparatus were left to come and he made up the shortfall by out-scoring Hall on the parallel bars to set up what was effectively a straight title shootout on the most unpredictable element of all.
Georgiou went first with a clean routine scoring 13.9, before Hall’s response of 14.1 guaranteed an English gold medal. With all eyes on Wilson, the Leeds 22-year-old delivered with 15.1 to emerge a clear winner.