England’s Gabriel Langton has been ‘cleared of any serious injury’ after suffering a sickening injury in the men’s gymnastics final at the Commonwealth Games.
The 19-year-old fell from high bars and landed head first on the floor on day one of the event in Glasgow, which left him requiring lengthy medical attention.
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Gabriel Langton contested the floor, rings and parallel bars before falling on the horizontal bar in the final rotationCredit: Getty
Langton missed his grab on the horizontal bars, three metres in the air, before suffering a horrible fall, causing the artistic gymnastic action to be immediately stopped.
The English gymnast was treated by over 10 medical staff, before eventually being stretchered away wearing a head brace.
His teammates were left visibly shocked, before having to regroup and continue the competition, eventually winning a silver medal.
Team England statement
The worrying scenes involving Langton overshadowed the team success, with Team England since providing an update on his condition.
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“Gabriel was transferred to the hospital as a precautionary measure overnight and underwent multiple scans today, with very positive results,” a team statement read.
“Thankfully, he has been cleared of any serious injury complications and will be discharged to return to the team hotel this evening.
“He is in good spirits and hugely grateful for the many messages of support and the excellent care provided by the medical teams. He is looking forward to being reunited with the team to celebrate his silver medal.
“He will be discharged to the team hotel under the care of the Team England medical team this evening.”
When competition resumed, Langton’s England team-mates were unable to overhaul their deficit to Canada, who claimed their first Commonwealth Games gold medal in the event in 20 years with a score of 241.400 points.
England had won the event at the past two games, with Canada coming second both times, but trailed on 28.250 points this time.
Langton, who had been drafted into the squad as a replacement for injured six-time Olympic medallist Max Whitlock, was unable to join his team on the podium as they collected their silver medals.
Teammates pay tribute
Langton’s teammate Luke Whitehouse was first back on the apparatus after the competition restarted following the horror injury, and posted a relatively low score of 11.70.
But England recovered to clinch silver, with Whitehouse joining teammates Joshua Nathan, Adam Tobin and Alexander Yolshin-Cash on the podium as Langton received medical attention elsewhere.
Discussing the injury, Whitehouse told BBC Sport: “I think when something like that happens, you’ve just got to forget about it, reset.
“For me I just focused on my routine, one skill at a time. But yeah, wish him all the best. From what I’ve heard he’s doing ok.
“Gymnastics is such a dangerous sport and it just reminds us all how dangerous it is and things like this can happen, so it’s just one of those things, you’ve just got to put it out of your mind.”
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Alexander Yolshin-Cash, Luke Whitehouse, Adam Tobin and Joshua Nathan collected their silver medals without LangtonCredit: Getty
Whitehouse also paid tribute to the England team’s response as a whole to the worrying injury.
“It was really tough,” Whitehouse added.
“We just had to reset, try to put it to one side mentally and focus on the job we had to do.
“I think everyone should be proud of the way we carried on after Gabe’s fall.
“We all agreed we’d take another warm-up and bring our energy back into it.
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“There was a delay after the first warm-up, but we regrouped. The coaches were fantastic, and the boys who had to go up on high bar were incredible.
“The togetherness of the team really showed, and I couldn’t be prouder of everyone.”