Joe Fraser's determined to enjoy one more shot at glory
Joe Fraser admits he paid the price for pushing too hard in his bid for an Olympic medal after he made two errors and finished ninth in the men’s all-around final.
The Birmingham ace fell off the pommel horse and then failed to land his vault cleanly, putting him out of medal contention.
He finished behind team-mate James Hall, who was the top Brit in eighth, and will now turn his attention to the parallel bars final, where he will hope to match his World Championship gold from 2019.
“I knew if I wanted to break into the medals today, I had to go all in and push the boat out,” said the former Sandwell Academy pupil. “I did not ever want to think what about this or what about that. I made mistakes, these things happen, it’s sport at the end of the day.
“At first, it was a shock because pommel is a steady routine, so I did not really expect to make a mistake. I just tried to reset and refocus and I delivered a good rings routine, so I was happy.”
Fraser started the final on the floor and scored a steady 14.100 but his medal hopes went up in smoke shortly after when he scored just 13.300 on the pommel horse, 1.333 less than in qualifying.
A steady rings routine was followed by another error on vault but he finished strongly on the parallel bars (15.133) and the high bar (14.400) to crack the top 10.
He punched the air after finishing and admits he can take a lot of confidence into Tuesday’s parallel bars final.
“I feel like now I can get my head into gear and get ready for that P bar final. I have worked my whole life to get exactly where I am today so I just want to enjoy it,” he said. “I have will train as hard as I can for the next six days and then I will be all in on Tuesday.
“There’s no pressure, all I can do is what I can do so if people believe it me that is an extra plus, not extra pressure. Right now, all I can think about is all I can do.
“I will definitely try my best to just soak up every moment and try to forget this is an Olympic final, do my routine just like I would in any other training environment and enjoy it.”
Though Fraser could not add a medal to Great Britain’s tally, Team GB’s total was 16 after five days – four more than at the same stage in Rio de Janeiro five years ago.
Regarding the early success, British Olympic Association chief executive Andy Anson said: “We shouldn’t compare ourselves to Rio, it’s a different environment and a different Games so we are not getting carried away. It’s a very encouraging start.”
But Anson did have words of praise for GB’s swimmers, who have led the medal charge, although he admits it’s something they expected.
“They’re taking it in their stride,” he said. “They kind of expected it. They have been doing well, getting a lot of athletes into finals and that program clearly has strength in depth.
“Some sports are in transition at the moment – they’ll be better for Paris – but swimming seems to right now be in a very strong position.”
On Simone Biles and mental health in sport: “It’s significant. We knew this would be a tough Olympic Games for athletes. For someone like her in the heat of competition to be able to back up and say I need to look after myself – she clearly did the right thing.”
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