Joe Fraser fights through the pain for Commonwealth glory
Gold medals are never won easy, yet they are rarely claimed tougher than this.
After first illness and then injury threatened to derail his dream of winning gold at Birmingham 2022, Joe Fraser last night battled through the pain to help England retain their Commonwealth Games crown.
Six weeks on from having his appendix out and only two since suffering a broken foot in training, the 23-year-old stood proudly with his team-mates on the top step of the podium to take the adulation of his hometown crowd.
That, of course, is exactly how everyone expected it would turn out from the moment Fraser, who still lives within a 30-minute walk of the NIA, emerged as one of the gymnastic’s brightest young talents.
Only that this script featured several unwanted late twists and turns before reaching its glorious conclusion.
The last of those, the foot injury disclosed by Fraser in a social media post late on Friday night, prevented him from competing on the floor and vault, putting paid to his ambition of winning gold in tomorrow’s all-around individual final.
And yet where Fraser could contribute, he was fantastic, recording the best scores on the pommel horse and horizontal bars and second best on the rings and parallel bars to reach those individual finals, which take place next week. It would be a surprise if last night’s gold medal was the former Sandwell Academy student’s last of these Games.
This was a team competition, of course. There was plenty else to admire in and England team which by the end of the night had finished more than 10 points above the rest. Courtney Tulloch excelled on the rings, Giarnii Regini-Moran was spectacular on the parallel bars and vault, while the calm consistency of Jake Jarman and skipper James Hall saw both qualify for the individual all-around final.
Fittingly, however, it was Fraser who settled early nerves with an excellent routine on the pommel horse. Any lingering questions over his fitness answered, England never looked in danger of losing from that point.
Fraser has performed in big moments before, of course. You don’t become a world champion without that attribute.
But he had never faced an expectation to deliver on this scale. One of the poster boys for the entire Games, having grown up within half-an-hour’s walk of the NIA, there can’t have been a person in the venue who didn’t know his story. The pressure to perform was colossal, the circumstances a long way from perfect. And yet deliver he did.
With the house lights down and music blaring, the NIA had an atmosphere approaching a discotheque in the minutes leading up to the competition. Fraser cut a relaxed figure as the teams were introduced, turning and waving to the crowd as he received the loudest ovation.
But those fans eager to see the local hero in action had a little while more to wait, with England up first on the floor and the local boy a spectator.
Strong performances from Hall, Jarman and Regini-Moran moved the hosts ahead of Wales, pacesetters in the morning’s first subdivision, to the top of the standings after one piece of apparatus.
Yet the lead over Cyprus, who impressed on the rings and the vault and in Marios Georgiou possess a genuine contender for the all-around title, was a slender one when Fraser’s moment finally arrived, nearly an hour into the competition, on the pommel horse.
You could sense the tension, with Fraser taking an extended moment to compose himself and begin his routine, the buzz around the arena replaced by a nervous near-silence before the perfectly executed dismount – and an impact with the mat one can only assume must have caused him incredible pain – brought the biggest roar of the night so far.
The one greeting the announcement of his 14.650 score, which surpassed the previous best mark on the apparatus set by former world bronze medallist Rhys McClenaghan earlier in the day, was louder still.
Fraser quickly followed it with a strong performance on the rings, again achieving the highest mark of the day at that point with 14.450. When team-mate Courtney Tulloch, reigning Commonwealth champion on the rings, bettered it with a stunning routine to register 14.700, England were starting to ease ahead of the competition, their advantage over Cyprus having grown from fractions to more than a point-and-a-half at the midway point of the night.
By the time Fraser was called into action again, on the parallel bars, the lead was beyond four after Jarman and Regini-Moran had scored the highest scores of the day on the vault.
The latter then posted a new landmark on the parallel bars of 14.850, one which even Fraser, Britain’s first-ever world champion on the apparatus three years ago, was unable to better. His score of 14.600 still kept the team well on track, the grimace which crossed his face on the dismount another indicator of the discomfort felt within.
England’s lead was now beyond 10 points and the biggest question was would who would finish best of the rest, with Cyprus, Australia, Canada and Scotland locked in a tight four-way battle for silver.
There was still time for one last show from Fraser, his routine on the horizontal bars bringing a huge roar and the first big release of emotion, as he stood arms outstretched, soaking it in.
Victory was confirmed and the England five stood embraced in a huddle. They had delivered quite the show.
