Reuben Ward wrote his name in the history books on Sunday afternoon as he became the first ever Scottish gymnast to win Commonwealth Games gold in the All-Around.

Cool, calm, and collected, Reuben spent the majority of the competition in the lead, but handled the pressure like a seasoned champion.

Starting on Floor, he scored a solid 12.8, marked down by 0.4 for a couple of minor foot faults. Next up was his favoured Pommel Horse, a cleanly executed, high-difficulty routine scoring big points (14.1) to put him in a great position a third of the way into the final.

On to the Rings, he opted for a lower difficulty routine, as he did in the Team Event, but again he went clean, sticking the landing to a huge cheer from the partisan Glasgow crowd.

After only doing a double twist in the Team Event, Reuben upped the difficulty with a triple twist to score a massive 14.05 on the Vault to strengthen his lead heading into the final two disciplines.

As he headed to the Parallel Bars and the arena went silent, the whole crowd collectively holding its breath as he nailed his routine, stuck the dismount, and put himself in pole position with just the High Bar remaining.

Rounding out with such a high-risk, high-reward piece was a fitting end, the crowd roaring Reuben home.

Then there was a nervous wait, with eyes on both the Floor and High Bar to see if any of the gymnasts in and around the podium could usurp him. Moore of Australia couldn’t, so all eyes were on Felix Dolci of Canada. He produced a High Bar routine that will go down in history, scoring a huge 14.50. 

The crowd held its breath, and then erupted as Reuben took gold by just two tenths.

Jubilant celebrations followed, before Flower of Scotland belted out around the arena as Reuben collected his gold medal.

Speaking afterwards, the delighted gold medallist said:

“I’m over the moon. I found out not long ago that a Scottish man has never won the All-Around so I’m just so proud that I’ve been able to prove that Scottish gymnastics are a force to be reckoned with. We are on the come up; we’ve got a great team, we’ve got a lot of great coaches, and the future is bright. I also wanted to inspire some of the young ones, so I’m hoping I might have done that today. Incredible time, incredible dream.”

On the crowd and atmosphere of the competition, he added: “I don’t know whether I would have done it without them. There were a few pieces when I landed my dismount and personally, I was so relieved I got through. Then hearing the crowd in my ear so loud was like they were doing it with me; I wasn’t on my own. I had friends and family in the crowd and I had random people screaming for me – it was just such a special moment. I’m genuinely just grateful.”

On picking out one highlight of the day, he said: “There’s been a couple in the last hour, but probably seeing the final score come through knowing that I had won the gold medal. Everyone around me was jumping, screaming – that was so special and a wave of emotions that I’d never experienced. Then standing up in front of the crowd with my flag on – just living in the moment. I was loving it and running around giving people high fives – it just felt so surreal with everyone trying to high five me, I loved it.”

Ahead of apparatus finals, he said: “I’m just going to try and cool off. I don’t know how well I’m going to sleep tonight; I might have a bit of an adrenaline high. Going again tomorrow (Monday) for floor and pommel – I’ve got big aspirations for pommel, so I’ll try and keep my head screwed on and try and calm down and hit the routine I know I can and then hopefully bring back another gold for Scotland.”

Cameron Lynn was the other Scottish athlete in the All-Around final, and he also acquitted himself exceptionally, once again getting the crowd involved, which undoubtedly helped both himself and Ward to raise their game.

A slightly shaky start saw Lynn come off the Pommel mid-routine; however, he put that to the back of his mind with a brilliant display on Rings, improving by almost a full point on his routine in the Team Event on Friday. 

Lynn’s good form continued on the Vault, the judges rewarding him with a mark of 13.70, again improving on his effort on Friday – he loved that one and urged the crowd to get behind him with a huge roar.

The Stirling native, who competes for West Lothian Gymnastics Club, was last to go on Parallel Bars, a strong routine, less a couple of small mistakes, put him 11^th with two to go.

An action-packed High Bar, and a pleasing Floor routine saw him finish in 10^th spot, before he immediately turned his attention to roaring on his teammate, which just underlined the togetherness of the group.

Speaking to the media post-comp, Lynn said:

“Reuben absolutely smashed it out there! To see my teammate, and one of my best friends go out there and absolutely smash it out the park and win the first ever gold medal in the All-Around for Team Scotland, that’s something I’ll cherish forever. 

“That gives us major confidence as a team that Scottish gymnastics can compete. I didn’t perform to my best today, but Reuben has proved that Scotland is a force to be reckoned with, and we’re going to prove that in the individuals over the next couple of days.”

Monday will see both Cameron Lynn and Reuben Ward back in action in the Individual Apparatus Finals at 1pm. Both men go in the Pommel – Ward topping the charts in qualifying– Ward will also contest the Floor. On Tuesday they’re both in action again, Lynn in the High Bar and Ward in the Parallel Bars.