Ethan Ikeda, Jordan Carroll, Félix Dolci, William Émard, and René Cournoyer

The Canadian men’s team put on a stellar performance in Glasgow on Friday night, winning the program’s first Commonwealth Games team gold medal since 2006.

It was a bit of a shaky start on pommel horse, though specialist Jordan Carroll pulled through them through with a massive 14.550 – the second-best score of the day – and once they got it over with, the rest of the competition was smooth sailing, with standout performances on rings and vault followed by mostly stellar work across the remaining events.

Led by Félix Dolci, who din’t count a single major mistake and topped the all-around qualifications with an 81.650, the team also saw mostly consistent performances from veterans William Émard and René Cournoyer, while newcomer Ethan Ikeda struggled a bit but got some invaluable experience and contributed to the pommel horse total.

Émard had to fight through weird mistakes in his pommels set, but came back with revenge routines throughout the rest of the evening, with his rings and vault of course at a super high level, but I was most impressed with how well he came through for the team on parallel bars and high bar, where he’s often gotten into his head. Cournoyer had a couple of falls on high bar that the team unfortunately had to count, but by that point of the competition the team had a significant enough lead, which they were able to hold onto with a solid finish on floor.

The win was especially significant, as the Canadians were able to oust England, the reigning champs. Coming to Glasgow with a mix of veterans and talented but young athletes, England started off with a stellar floor set, but misses from key pommel horse athletes – notably Joshua Nathan and Alexander Yolshin-Cash – held them back early on and they weren’t able to recover, especially after a horrific fall from Gabriel Langton completely changed their momentum in the penultimate rotation.

Langton, making his senior international debut here at 19, came into the Commonwealth Games as the reserve athlete, replacing an injured Max Whitlock with only about a week’s notice. He looked mostly good today, showing mostly lower-difficulty but otherwise good sets and struggling with a missed element on parallel bars, but then as the lead-off athlete on high bar he went for a relatively simple element – a Tak with a half turn – he didn’t quite make it to handstand and started turning over the wrong way. This happens all the time with Tak elements, and the gymnast usually is able to simply drop down onto the mat, but Langton’s hands slipped giving him no time to react in the air, causing him to drop directly down onto his head.

It was the scariest, most sickening fall I’ve seen in my lifetime, and I’m so glad the cameras on the feed I was watching cut away for privacy while the medics attended to him, but also grateful that people watching other streams or sitting in the arena were able to tell me that he was conscious and moving his arms and legs, even trying to remove his grips at one point. Later updates from Team England also say that he was speaking to the doctor at the hospital, so I hope he is doing well and things end up not being too serious.

Almost as bad as the injury itself was the English team along with the other competitors in the arena having to wait around while the entire arena was put on hold, many of them just having watched the accident and then have to move on about 15 minutes later with another touch warmup before getting back to competing. I can’t imagine being in that position but the athletes – and the English team especially having to go up and field three more high bar routines – performed admirably to finish out the day.

Luke Whitehouse, who had stellar routines all day, did great work in his set as the first up after Langton, and though he unfortunately ended up sitting his dismount, Yolshin-Cash and Adam Tobin (who was top-notch all day!) wrapped things up with lovely hit sets to secure the silver medal for England. Though they weren’t able to fight to bring back another team gold, I think their real win today was coming back from a devastating situation to finish strong together.

The battle for bronze seemed to be between Australia and Cyprus as the competition went on, and though Scotland made a last-ditch effort to make themselves a part of that fight, the Australians ultimately ended up on the podium for the first time since 2010, taking what could be a sketchy rotation for most teams – pommel horse, of course – and doing some of the strongest work of the competition there.

Overall, the day was kind of hit or miss for the Australians, who had some moments of greatness, but then also some surprising missteps, including a fall from pommel horse specialist Tru Hagens (though his routine is so fantastic, he still outscored the majority of the field with a 13.100).

I think most shocking was two falls for standout Jesse Moore – on high bar and then again on floor – and I was also saddened by Ritam Malik sitting his parallel bars dismount after a brilliant routine. Both of these athletes otherwise did strong work, however, and were bolstered by a great day from James Hardy along with a couple of simple but very clean routines from Ben Foster, who counted hits on floor and parallel bars to make up for others’ falls on both.

The host nation, Scotland, got things started with a floor rotation that included all hits, albeit with a few bobbles here and there, and then followed up on pommel horse with the best rotation of the day, capped off by a brilliant routine from star Reuben Ward, who earned a 14.550 to lead the competition.

Unfortunately, things fell apart for the guys on rings, where they had to count a fall after both Hamish Carter and Cameron Lynn sat their dismounts, and the hit routines that counted were too low-difficulty to make up for the errors. The team came back slowly but surely on vault and parallel bars, and then put together an absolutely brilliant high bar rotation.

The rotation started off with Lynn competing a great Tak half to Kovacs, followed by Carter with a stuck full-twisting double layout, Ward with a fabulous Liukin and then a Tkachev to Gienger to Endo half, and Connor Sullivan, who caught everything to wrap things up brilliantly for the guys. But while it looked like they had a chance at the podium, the Australians were simultaneously too good on pommel horse, and the hosts ended up just over a point back from making it. Still, it was a valiant effort and so much fun to watch, and the guys improved their ranking from fifth place in 2022.

Cyprus ended up finishing in fifth place after starting off strong but ending the day with rough rotations on floor and pommel horse, though Marios Georgiou was of course notable for doing some incredible work throughout the day, especially with his stuck Yurchenko double full followed by brilliant routines on parallel bars and high bar. Rounding out the team rankings were Wales in sixth place, India in seventh, and Bangladesh in eighth.

Despite the traumatic experience for the athletes to kick off that final rotation, the competition as a whole was very exciting to follow with so many moments of joy and triumph. I hope Langton is doing okay and is able to come back strong from this injury and from this experience.

Rankings from today’s competition are below. We’ll be back bright and early tomorrow (5 am ET!) to live blog the women’s competition.

TEAM FINAL RANKINGS

1. Canada 241.400
2. England 238.250
3. Australia 235.650
4. Scotland 234.300
5. Cyprus 238.350
6. Wales 227.000
7. India 208.550
8. Bangladesh 161.350

ALL-AROUND QUALIFICATIONS

1. Félix Dolci, Canada, 81.650
2. Marios Georgiou, Cyprus, 80.950
3. Reuben Ward, Scotland, 79.650
4. Adam Tobin, England, 79.650
5. William Émard, Canada, 78.850
6. Luke Whitehouse, England, 78.700
7. Jesse Moore, Australia, 78.150
8. Ritam Malik, Australia, 77.550
9. Cameron Lynn, Scotland, 77.450
10. Hamish Carter, Scotland, 76.500*
11. Elliot Vernon, Wales, 76.350
12. Alexander Niscoveanu, Wales, 74.900
13. Daniel Stoddart, New Zealand, 72.850
14. Benjamin Foster, Australia, 72.450*
15. Jovi Loh, Singapore, 72.400
16. Georgios Angonas, Cyprus, 71.800
17. Tapan Mohanty, India, 71.700
18. Yogeshwar Singh, India, 71.400
19. Kyriakos Markidis, Cyprus, 70.350*
20. Ethan Ikeda, Canada, 70.350*
21. Chane Cumbermack, Trinidad & Tobago, 70.200
22. Clayton Bell, Jamaica, 70.050

R1. Harry Eyres, Isle of Man, 66.550
R2. Justin Spencer, Cayman Islands, 65.100
R3. Daniel McLean, South Africa, 63.600
R4. Asher Pua, Singapore, 62.750

FLOOR QUALIFICATIONS

1. Luke Whitehouse, England, 14.400
2. Félix Dolci, Canada, 13.700
3. René Cournoyer, Canada, 13.500
4. Daniel McLean, South Africa, 13.350
5. Muhammad Sharul Aimy, Malaysia, 13.250
6. Reuben Ward, Scotland, 13.150
7. James Hardy, Australia, 13.150
8. Joshua Nathan, England, 13.100

R1. William Fu-Allen, New Zealand, 13.050
R2. Marios Georgiou, Cyprus, 13.000
R3. Eamon Montgomery, Northern Ireland, 13.000

POMMEL HORSE QUALIFICATIONS

1. Reuben Ward, Scotland, 14.550
2. Jordan Carroll, Canada, 14.550
3. Rhys McClenaghan, Northern Ireland, 14.500
4. Marios Georgiou, Cyprus, 13.650
5. Ritam Malik, Australia, 13.500
6. Jesse Moore, Australia, 13.300
7. Tru Hagens, Australia, 13.100*
8. Cameron Lynn, Scotland, 13.000
9. Adam Tobin, England, 12.950

R1. Joshua Nathan, England, 12.900
R2. Elliot Vernon, Wales, 12.850
R3. Félix Dolci, Canada, 12.750

RINGS QUALIFICATIONS

1. William Émard, Canada, 13.850
2. Adam Tobin, England, 13.400
3. Félix Dolci, Canada, 13.400
4. René Cournoyer, Canada, 13.350*
5. James Hardy, Australia, 13.200
6. Luke Whitehouse, England, 13.150
7. Jesse Moore, Australia, 13.000
8. Sokratis Pilakouris, Cyprus, 12.850
9. Daniel Stoddart, New Zealand, 12.800

R1. Marios Georgiou, Cyprus, 12.750
R2. Swathish Kaitheri Puthalath, India, 12.450
R3. Pavel Karnejenko, Scotland, 12.400

VAULT QUALIFICATIONS

1. Félix Dolci, Canada, 14.100
2. Luke Whitehouse, England, 14.000
3. James Hardy, Australia, 13.775
4. Muhammad Sharul Aimy, Malaysia, 13.725
5. Ewan McAteer, Northern Ireland, 13.650
6. Neofytos Kyriakou, Cyprus, 13.625
7. Kyriakos Markidis, Cyprus, 13.500
8. Clayton Bell, Jamaica, 13.300

R1. Henry Lewis, Wales, 13.150
R2. Yogeshwar Singh, India, 12.600
R3. Connor Sullivan, Scotland, 12.525

PARALLEL BARS QUALIFICATIONS

1. Alexander Yolshin-Cash, England, 14.100
2. Marios Georgiou, Cyprus, 13.800
3. Adam Tobin, England, 13.800
4. William Émard, Canada, 13.650
5. Elliot Vernon, Wales, 13.650
6. Félix Dolci, Canada, 13.550
7. Reuben Ward, England, 13.500
8. Jesse Moore, Australia, 13.500

R1. Georgios Angonas, Cyprus, 13.200
R2. Alexander Niscoveanu, Wales, 13.150
R3. Hamish Carter, Scotland, 13.100

HIGH BAR QUALIFICATIONS

1. Félix Dolci, Canada, 14.250
2. Marios Georgiou, Cyprus, 13.750
3. William Émard, Canada, 13.500
4. Cameron Lynn, Scotland, 13.500
5. Ritam Malik, Australia, 13.450
6. Alexander Yolshin-Cash, England, 13.250
7. Alexander Istock, New Zealand, 13.200
8. Alexander Niscoveanu, Wales, 13.200

R1. Reuben Ward, Scotland, 13.150
R2. Adam Tobin, England, 13.100
R3. Elliot Vernon, Wales, 12.700

*Not eligible to qualify to the final due to two-per-country limitations

Article by Lauren Hopkins