Kent trio James Hall, Courtney Tulloch and Giarnni Regini-Moran help Great Britain to World Gymnastics bronze and seal Paris Olympics spot
09:45, 03 November 2022
updated: 11:41, 03 November 2022
Kent's James Hall, Courtney Tulloch and Giarnni-Regini Moran helped produced a remarkable fightback as Great Britain's men won team bronze at the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool.
Gravesend's Georgia-Mae Fenton helped the women’s team win an historic silver in front of an adoring home crowd on Tuesday, and Maidstone duo Hall and Tulloch, along with Gravesend's Regini-Moran, combined with Joe Fraser and Jake Jarman to medal in an epic final on Wednesday evening, sealing an Olympic quota place at the first opportunity.
Sitting in last place after two of six rotations, the team rallied to slowly climb the leaderboard before producing three outstanding rotations on vault, parallel bars and high bar to beat Italy to bronze with a score of 247.229. China (257.858) won gold, with Japan (253.395) taking silver.
Speaking about how close the scores were, Hall said: “I can’t help but calculate. I’m always telling myself, ‘don’t look at the scoreboard’, but I knew what we needed.
"I trust these guys to go up there and do their job. This bronze medal means the absolute world. It’s years in the making, since the beginning of our careers.”
The bronze is the squad's third major medal this year, following gold at the Commonwealth Games for Team England and another gold in GB colours at the European Championships. But despite their previous success, Tulloch struggled to comprehend their latest achievement.
“I just don’t know what’s just happened," he said. "I can’t believe it.
"We never gave up and we had the biggest team in the competition. We had us six (including reserve Adam Tobin) and the crowd right behind us. They never gave up and kept believing in us."
Despite missing out on victory, Regini-Moran put the result ahead of Commonwealth and European glory.
He said: “It’s special! Commonwealth gold and then European gold, but I think this one means the most because of the fight.
"We didn’t give up and that’s why it feels so special because we gave it everything until the last minute.”
GBR began on floor and got off to an excellent start with all three gymnasts scoring more than 14.000.
The next rotation was the pommel horse and it proved a difficult one. All three gymnasts struggled, with Hall (12.200) and Fraser (10.466) both counting falls which heavily impacted their scores.
That put the hosts down in eighth place, more than five marks off the medals, and needing something special to close the gap.
The rings was the catalyst for that as Tulloch - a master of the discipline and the top qualifier for the final later this week - produced the highest score for the team with 14.666.
High scoring from Regini-Moran (14.600) and Tulloch (14.500) followed on vault, with Jarman adding 13.733, which helped move the team to seventh.
On parallel bars the home heroes surged and a stunning routine from Fraser that scored 15.000, and stuck dismounts from Regini-Moran (14.233) and Hall (14.033), saw them climb to fourth place within 1.200 of a mark from Italy.
The Italians moved to pommel horse and GB to high bar and they weren’t to be denied. Despite immense pressure and with the home fans willing them on, scores of 13.700 from Hall, 14.000 from Fraser and 13.100 from Jarman sealed third place and a remarkable comeback.
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