As Jake Jarman arrived in Birmingham to compete in his first Commonwealth Games, he had almost no experience to draw upon in one of the biggest meets of his life. He is just 20 and over the past 18 months his emergence as a senior gymnast had been complicated by the sparse competition calendar during Covid and injuries that agitated him until March this year.
But his talent has always been undeniable, long placing him as one of Great Britain’s most promising gymnasts for the future. He is now also its present. After a dramatic tussle he rose to become the Commonwealth Games men’s all-around gold medallist, edging past his veteran teammate, James Hall, by .550 with a score of 83.900. Cyprus’s Marios Georgiou finished with bronze.
