What a couple of days it has been for Scottish gymnastics. As if Reuben Ward’s gold medal was not enough at the Commonwealth Games yesterday, he complemented it with a silver today and watched as his friend and team-mate, Cammy Lynn, won bronze.
With the Glasgow International Arena still giddy from the excitement of 24 hours earlier, when Ward became Scotland’s first all-around champion in this competition, he gave them even more to be proud of by finishing second in the pommel horse.
In many ways, it was no surprise. Ward is the man of the moment and this was his strongest discipline, which he showed with a performance that left him just 0.34 points behind gold medalist Jordan Carroll, of Canada.
What did come as a shock was the appearance of a second Scot on the podium. Even when Lynn produced one of his best-ever routines to move into third place, Northern Ireland’s Olympic champion Rhys McClenaghan and Australia’s Ritam Malik had still to go. The assumption was that at least one of them would break into the top three.
‘I mean, it’s Rhys McClenaghan, right? He’s the Olympic champion,’ Lynn told BBC Scotland. ‘So, as he’s stepping up, I’m just buzzing that I’ve scored a 13.8 and I didn’t really think much of it other than that.
‘I mean, that guy’s the Olympic champion. And Ritam’s an amazing gymnast as well, so I was just thinking, “oh, a little top-five finish might be quite nice”.’
Reuben Ward is thrilled for friend and Scotland team-mate Cammy Lynn after both won medals
Reuben won the silver medal, Lynn the bronze, as Jordan Carroll took gold in the pommel horse
Ward had already become Scotland’s first all-around champion in the Commonwealth Games
How wrong could he be. McClenaghan finished sixth, and Malik fourth, leaving 23-year-old Lynn to give Scotland their third gymnastics medal in two days.
The Stirling athlete had not been expected to trouble the podium, but here he was, bouncing around the arena with a saltire around him, thrilled to have backed up the heroics of countryman Ward.
It can’t have been easy for Ward the morning after the night before, but he composed himself superbly. Having come up short with an ambitious floor routine earlier in the day, he produced another medal-winning show on the pommel.
‘He is the man,’ said Lynn. ‘He’s gone out and he’s won an all-around gold medal, the first in Scotland’s history, and then to come out in a floor final and upgrade his routine on floor and on pommel, that takes a lot of confidence. That takes a lot of power. I mean, look at him. What a guy.’
Ward’s decision to increase the difficulty of his pommel routine was a measure of his newfound ambition in the sport. To meet that challenge, and to do it so soon after the euphoria of Sunday, said a lot for his professionalism.
Ward was thrilled for Lynn and for the sport in their country. They are the first two Scottish gymnasts to win medals in the same individual event at the Commonwealth Games.
‘To get two out of three on the podium for Scotland, and to do it with one of my best friends is a feeling I can’t describe,’ said Ward. ‘Scotland is a force to be reckoned with in gymnastics and we are starting to prove that. I began it the other day and we are snowballing now.’
As they celebrated, McClenaghan played down his defeat, saying he would immediately shift focus to the upcoming European and world championships. ‘This is a training day for me, so we go back to the gym as soon as I can, and we tackle it just like we tackle any training day,’ he said.
