Jake jumps out of the shadows for unlikely gold

HE IS the youngest member of the men’s England team, the only one without Olympic or Commonwealth Games experience. A name no one had on their list of ones to watch. Well, everyone will be watching Jake Jarman now as a star has been born in Birmingham. The 20-year-old came of age in yesterday’s all-around final, edging out his older and injured countryman James Hall to add a second gold medal to the one he won in Friday’s team event. Now Jarman is being tipped as a future Olympic champion by Max Whitlock. He should know. ‘It’s quite overwhelming,’ said Jarman. ‘I will never have an experience like this ever again. It means the absolute world.’ This gold was always likely to go England’s way, just not to this gymnast. Local hero Joe Fraser had been tipped for the title, but pulled out with a broken foot. In his absence, Hall, 26, was meant to upgrade the silver he won four years ago. Yet he went over on his ankle landing his vault in the fourth of six rounds, as Jarman earned a huge score. Hall crawled off stage after the parallel bars but the gold was still up for grabs going into the high bar. He fell 0.55 points short.

‘The pain was immense,’ said Hall. ‘But Jake deserved it. He’s got so much more to come.’ The same can be said of England’s 18-year-old Ondine Achampong, who won silver in the women’s all-around. It may even have been gold had she not fallen off the beam.