Commonwealth Games: England win landmark third team gymnastics gold

Thanks to Birmingham’s Joe Fraser, England became the first team to win three straight gold medals in team gymnastics at the Commonwealth Games.

With a score of 14.650, home favourite Fraser led the pommel horse standings, igniting cheers from spectators all around the arena.

The hosts also made light of Max Whitlock’s injury by finishing on 254.500, 13.300 ahead of Canada.

As England dominated, James Hall, Jake Jarman, Giarnni Regini-Moran, and Courtney Tulloch also shone.

Their triumph was England’s second gold of the Commonwealth Games after triathlete Alex Yee’s victory earlier on the opening day of the competition.

Two weeks prior to the Games, British champion Fraser’s chances of competing in the all-around event at the Commonwealths were dashed by an ankle injury.

He promised, though, to move past his disappointment and assist England in their pursuit of a second championship after victories in Glasgow in 2014 and on the Gold Coast in 2018.

Fraser entered the contest with a polished pommel routine and dismounted to thunderous applause. He received the proper rating from the judges of 14.650, which was 0.300 more than Rhys McClenaghan of Northern Ireland, the current Commonwealth champion on the apparatus.

Tulloch, the defending champion on the rings from the Gold Coast, increased England’s advantage with a composed, certain performance that resulted in a score of 14.700, easily outpacing the rest of the field.

Fraser, however, was appropriately given the last word. In England’s final rotation, he performed a fantastic horizontal bar performance and earned the highest score of 14.500.

The England squad jumped around in a happy huddle, but the surprise bronze medalists from Cyprus outdid their joyous celebrations.

Wales came in sixth and Scotland fifth, respectively.

The team final, which also acts as the qualifying event for individual disciplines, determines the top eight athletes on each apparatus for the medal events later in the competition.

After Marios Georgiou of Cyprus, English gymnasts Jarman and Hall had the two best all-around scores.

Frank Baines of Scotland, who retired from the sport in 2019 but came back to take part in a third Commonwealth Games, also made progress.