Oakwood Park pupil James Hall has 'best experience of his life' after double gold at Australian Youth Olympic Festival
James Hall, third from left, and Courtney
Tulloch, second left, celebrate their gold medals in Australia.
Picture: Gymnastics Australia
by Craig Tucker
Gymnast James Hall described his double gold medal success at
the Australian Youth Olympic Festival as the “experience of my
life”.
Hall, 17, travelled to Australia in the shadow of high-profile
Pegasus team-mate Courtney Tulloch but upstaged his friend and
training partner.
They won two gold medals each but Oakwood Park sixth-former Hall
– helped by a silver on pommel horse and bronze on vault – finished
fifth overall with Tulloch in sixth.
Hall said: “The attention was on Courtney a little bit more
because he won two gold medals at the European Championships and is
better known than me. It was incredible, the best experience of my
life.”
Hall helped Great Britain win team gold before surprising
himself by winning the floor event.
He said: “Floor didn’t go well for me in the team event so we
changed the routine and I bumped my score up by a mark. I was
second up and when I saw my score of 14.3, my jaw dropped."
Hall and Tulloch’s next big event is the English Championships
in three weeks’ time.
Hall said: “We’ll be training hard. We are competitive but we
still cheer each other and push each other on. We try to get better
and better with every training session.”
24/01/13
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