Giarnni Regini-Moran defied years of injury hell to win a world floor gold medal while Courtney Tulloch took bronze on a dream day for Britain at the World Gymnastics Championships.
Aged 17 Regini-Moran spent six hours in an operating theatre - snapping his posterior cruciate ligament, damaging his MCL and straining his ACL all at once.
Pain is a fact of his life but some measure of sporting payback came in the form of a fairytale victory on floor in Liverpool.
“There were so many times when I almost gave up and threw in the towel,” said the 24-year-old.
“To be able to jump, land, run with the power I need on that floor, I never thought I’d be able to do it.
“I didn’t believe I would be strong enough to be with the world’s best because of what I went through. My knee is never going to be 100% again but I’ve learned to live with it.
“I’ve had physios and doctors spend hours, days, months with me. I lost that self-belief - you can let this stuff get you down and be negative about it, but you have to believe in yourself.”
Regini-Moran is the fourth British artistic gymnast after Beth Tweddle, Max Whitlock and Joe Fraser to be crowned world champion.
The door opened when Filipino pre-event favourite Carlos Yulo fell on his first pass and Japan’s Ryosuke Doi stepped off the floor.
The Great Yarmouth-born star executed the joint-most difficult routine attempted by any gymnast in the final, sticking all of his landings to score a superb 14.533.
He beat Japan’s Daiki Hashimoto, crowned the best male gymnast in the world last night with all-around gold, by 0.33 points.
Regini-Moran said: “That’s only the third time I’ve ever hit that routine. I didn’t make any in training.
“In training I was trying to push the difficulty and upgrade but it never clicked until I sat down with my coaches and made some changes.
“Anything can happen in a final, you’ve got to land on your feet and land well. I really don’t know how I feel, I’m lost for words.”
Then Tulloch nailed a rings routine he has carefully honed for two years to win a global medal at the fourth attempt.
Tulloch is a trailblazer for Britain on the apparatus - the first to reach a world rings final in 2014, the first to win a European medal in 2016 and now the first Brit to win a world medal.
“I’m just so happy, it’s been a long time coming,” said the 27-year-old.
“I’ve done a lot of World Championships and not got that medal. The confidence is building now and it’s growing.
“I feel like I’m finally able to go into the finals and deal with the pressure and the psychology going into it. This year we’ve had an incredible year and the confidence is sky-high.
“It’s just about keeping that going into next year, the British team as a whole is in a great place. We’ve got to continue that now until the Olympics.”
The host nation matched their best-ever performance at a World Championships with a day of action to spare.
Sportsbeat 2022