Wilson saves his best for last to pip Hall
Brilliant Englishman wins gold in all-round event Team-mate aiming to exact revenge tomorrow
Two down, four to go. Coming into these Commonwealth Games, Nile Wilson had stated his intention was to turn the silvers and bronzes he won at Glasgow 2014 into gold medals here on the other side of the world. So far, so good.
A couple of days after joining up with his England team-mates to win team gold, Wilson was out on his own at the Coomera Indoor Sports Centre yesterday, proving he is the best allaround gymnast in the Commonwealth. Over the next two days he will bid to add floor, rings, parallel bars and horizontal bars gold medals to the collection and, having qualified top of the standings in two of those events, there should be plenty more to come.
This all-around triumph was a nailbiter, despite the absence of reigning Commonwealth champion Max Whitlock, who chose to sit out the event.
Struggling with a hand injury that severely restricted his pommel horse routine – the second of six apparatuses contested – Wilson knew he would always have to play catch-up.
Sitting way down the 18-man field, he slowly started to make his move, creeping up the leaderboard as the competition progressed – first place in the rings, second in the vault and then first in the parallel bars.
Incredibly, with one event remaining, there was just 0.025points separating Wilson from his England team-mate James Hall and the Cypriot Marios Georgiou at the top of the standings.
The trouble for Hall and Georgiou was the knowledge that the final apparatus, the horizontal bar, was Wilson’s strongest. A clean routine saw Geor- giou score a solid 13.9 before Hall responded with 14.1 to guarantee an English winner. However, Wilson blew them both out of the water with a scintillating routine, taking the title with a score of 15.1.
“That was one of the most incredible experiences I’ve ever had,” he said. “It’s incredible for it to come down to the wire with the three of us all in the mix.
“I smiled my way through it and hit the bar routine I knew I could. It’s a great feeling to have another Commonwealth Games gold medal round my neck. Obviously my score was a lot down on the pommel horse because I’m not doing the full routine because of my hand, but it was enough. We were steady all the way round and I came alive on the last two rotations.
“It’s difficult to not be aware with the big scoreboard and the crowd, but for me it’s that feeling when I land that high-bar dismount and I roar and the buzz I get, I do it for that.
“That’s all I’m thinking about when I’m in that pressurised environment. I knew what I needed to do towards the end, but I take it my in my stride and I smile. When it’s my time to stand up on the podium and do my bar routine it’s like, ‘Come on then guys, watch me, it’s my turn, and I love every minute of it’.
“Back in Glasgow I was 18 and didn’t know what to expect and I probably went pale white with nerves when I came out. These days I just go out and
‘It was incredible – I smiled my way through it and then hit the bar routine’
enjoy it.” For Hall, who added silver to the team gold he won earlier in the week, there are two more chances to gain revenge over Wilson in the parallel bars and high-bar finals tomorrow.
“I can clean that routine up and I’ve got another two releases I can add in,” he said. “Today, because it came down to the wire, I had to be a bit more careful. These judgment calls are needed quite often.” England’s perfect record of making the podium in all gymnastics events here continued with Alice Kinsella winning bronze in the women’s all-around. Finishing behind Ellie Black, of Canada, and Australia’s Georgia Godwin, Kinsella paid the price for a poor finish to the event. “I could have done a lot better today,” she said.
“My beam performance was quite wobbly, and so were my floor landings. So yes, I could have done better, but I’m still proud of what I achieved.”