Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
An injury to England’s Gabriel Langton in the men’s team gymnastics final at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow overshadowed the team’s silver medal.
The 19-year-old, from Birmingham City Gymnastics Club, required lengthy treatment on the mat after a devastating fall in the final round of the night at the Arena.
After losing his grip on a horizontal steel bar three meters in the air, Langton fell head first to the floor, prompting a long delay in the procedure as up to a dozen medics attended.
Finally, after his head and neck were supported, he was transferred to a stretcher and taken away in a trolley, and the crowd, who spent the last 10 minutes in silence, left with loud applause.
Langton was seen awake and moving his legs and arms before leaving the arena floor, but team officials later said he was moving and talking to doctors.
As the tournament continued, team-mates England were unable to make up for Canada’s first gold medal in 20 years, who finished second behind England in the last two games.
Langton, a late call-up to England in place of injured six-time Olympic medalist Max Whitlock, was unable to join his team on the podium as England collected their silver medal.
Teammate Luke Whitehouse, who scored a relatively low score of 11.700 after the race restarted, said: “When something like that happens, you just have to forget about it. I had to focus on my routine at the same time.”
Whitehouse added: “He’s doing OK from what we’ve heard. Gymnastics is a very dangerous sport and things like this remind us of that. It’s one of those things you have to put out of your mind.”
“It’s scary, but it shows that gymnastics is a very difficult and complicated sport. Sometimes it’s dangerous, you know,” said Felix Dolchi, who helped Canada win gold and qualify for the all-around.
“All our thoughts go to Gabriel and the team. It’s definitely not easy to push this, (England) stayed focused, stayed in the zone, give them a big shout because that’s not easy.
“For any gymnast who has been on the field at the Games, this is not only difficult to see, it’s something you don’t want to see. It shows how tough the sport is.”
Hamish Carter of the Scottish team, who narrowly missed out on a bronze medal for Australia in the final round – “I didn’t see what happened. I’m so happy he’s okay and if I had this, anything could have happened.”
“We left without a medal, but I’m thinking about Gabe at this moment.”
