Joe Fraser leads GB gymnastics team to dominant European gold

Fate has maliciously lobbed one obstacle after another into the path of Joe Fraser this summer. A ruptured appendix. A broken right foot. Excruciating pain the accompaniment to both. It is just as well the leader of the British gymnastics pack has an abundant ability to pivot and twist before landing safely, separating himself from the debris scattered behind.

The 23-year-old from Birmingham leapt magnificently on Saturday in Munich. His colleagues followed his lead. The British quintet of Jake Jarman, James Hall, Giarnni Regini-Moran, Courtney Tulloch and Fraser flew towards men’s team gold with the greatest of ease.

This title has come the UK’s way once, a few weeks before the London 2012 Olympics. Pressing repeat bodes well for Paris 2024.

Turkey, the expected challengers, faded to bronze. Italy claimed silver but were a gulf adrift of the British points tally of 254.295. Fraser, despite a fracture he still has to manage, skipped gleefully and without fear.

“The main thing that’s kept me going is the team that stood with me,” he said. “When I doubted myself, they believed in me. And that’s what probably kept me going through those tough days and hard days.

“Stood here right now, as team European champions, makes all of those hard times worth it.”

True to form, he had to roll with another unanticipated punch, offering to sub in for the floor exercise when Tulloch took unwell overnight. “My face swelled up,” he said. “He looked like he’d had a boxing match,” Fraser said, grinning. That he took the smallest of penalties mattered little. His parallel bars was artistry in motion without a deviation in sight.

By midway, triumph felt inevitable. On a gargantuan cream sofa parked in the middle of the arena, the Britons could