Max Whitlock continues to write his name into the record books after becoming the first British gymnast to defend a world title with victory in the pommel final in Montreal on Saturday.
Coming into this week’s World Championships in Canada, Whitlock, 24, had not competed at any major competition since becoming Britain’s first Olympic gymnastics champion, on the floor and pommel.
But if he was feeling at all rusty, he did not show it, first topping qualifying earlier in the week before stepping it up a level in Saturday’s final to successfully defend the title he first won in Glasgow two years ago.
In a high-qualify final, Whitlock was the penultimate gymnast to go but rose to the challenge by upping his difficult level on his routine from qualification to finish with a score of 15.441.
Silver went to Russia’s David Belyavskiy on 15.100 with China’s Xiao Ruoteng taking the bronze with 15.066.
The gold takes Whitlock’s tally of World Championship medals to six – with additional silvers in the pommel (2013), all-around (2014), team and floor (both 2015) to go alongside his two golds.
This achievement also sees him overtake Rio 2016 teammate Louis Smith and Beth Tweddle for the most individual World Championship medals.
“It’s been quite a stressful build up. Me and my coach Scott (Hahn) have worked so hard to get to his position today. We can stand here very proud,” said Whitlock.
“Making history again, I couldn’t be happier. It feels amazing. I’ve always been inspired to look up to the guys that won titles, went back to training and then do it again. I’m so happy to do that myself.” Later in the evening Courtney Tulloch put in a solid performance in the rings final, showing impressive strength to finish with a score of 14.533. The Brit secured himself an eighth-place finish as Greece's Eleftherios Petrounias successfully defended his world title.
Sportsbeat 2017