Joe Fraser won Britain’s first all-around gymnastics gold at the European Championships in Munich. Fraser had battled back to fitness following a ruptured appendix and fractured foot ahead of the Commonwealth Games, where he won the individual pommel horse and parallel bars titles as well as team gold in Birmingham, his home city.
The 23-year-old recovered from an average floor routine to top both the pommel horse and parallel bars events. Fraser then produced a fine high bar routine on his final apparatus with a score of 13.700 to secure gold on a total of 85.565, with Turkey duo Ahmet Onder (85.131) and Adem Asil (84.465) also on the podium. “This is incredible.
We have had a real big journey to get here today, just even competing on six apparatus, not many people thought I could do it,” Fraser said to the British Gymnastics website. “There’s no doubt the all-around medal is the big one.
I’ve always loved the all-around whenever people ask I say I’m an all-arounder and now I feel like I can say that with true confidence and pride.” Fraser also qualified for the final of the pommel and parallel bars, while Great Britain team-mates Giarnni Regini-Moran (floor, vault and parallel bars), Courtney Tulloch (vault and rings), James Hall (high bar) and Jake Jarman (floor) also made it through in the individual competitions.