Folwell vaults to second gold
9th October 2010England’s young gymnasts have once again surprised with four more medals on the last day of artistic competition.
Luke Folwell, Imogen Cairns and Max Whitlock all collected medals as England’s gymnastic medal tally for the Games reached 12, double the number won in Melbourne four years ago.
Folwell says he came to the Games just to ‘do his best’ but his best has been good enough to deliver him a haul of five medals; two gold and three silver.
Add his bronze team medal from the 2006 Games and Folwell has probably won more medals than any other English male gymnast at the Commonwealth Games.
“What a week!” said the 23 year old who lives in Huntingdon. “It has completely taken me by surprise. I knew what I was capable of coming here but I didn’t know what the opposition could do. To come away with five medals is amazing. I just came here to do the best of my ability.”
On his final day in Delhi, Folwell won gold on the vault and silver on the parallel bars to add to the silver he won on the rings and his gold medals from the team event and all-around competition.
But Folwell won’t be hanging around to celebrate with his team-mates.
“I’m going home tomorrow because I’m a non-travelling reserve for the World Championships,” he said. “I’m sure the guys at home have seen the results here and I hope they’ve given them a bit of a boost.
“The medals aren’t just for me. They’re for everyone who has supported me, from my club to everyone involved with England.”
It was a good day too for Imogen Cairns. The 21-year-old from Portishead picked up gold in the floor exercises to add to her team silver and the gold she won on the vault on Thursday.
After falling off the beam, Cairns had to recover her composure for the floor.
“My head wasn’t in it and I was too relaxed. I went to the floor knowing I needed to tune in so I got my head down. I knew I just had to get the first tumble right and I did it, although the finish wasn’t great. I knew from that point on that I could do the routine. It wasn’t perfect but it was good enough.”
Good enough to score 14.200 from the judges, placing her ahead of Australian pair Lauren Mitchell and Ashleigh Brennan.
Rounding off things for England at the end of the evening was the youngest of the England male gymnasts, Max Whitlock.
In his first senior international competition, the 17-year-old has already performed far in excess of expectations but there was yet more medal success for the youngster from Hertfordshire as he finished with the bronze on the horizontal bar.
Referring to the pommel silver medal and team gold he won earlier in the week, Whitlock said: “I didn’t come with any expectations of getting a medal at all so to get three is absolutely amazing.”
England’s other gymnasts also performed well with Reiss Beckford finishing just outside the medals on the vault and Laura Edwards finishing fourth on the beam.
On the other apparatus, Beckford finished fifth on both the parallel bars and the horizontal bars while 16-year-old Edwards finished fifth on the floor.