Gabriel Langton, the England gymnast who suffered a horror fall at the Commonwealth Games, has spoken of his initial fear that he had let his country down. Langton was taken off on a stretcher after landing on his neck during the high bars routine in the men's team competition on Friday. He spent 24 hours in hospital before scans revealed he had escaped with heavy bruising to his neck.
Langton recalls the fall and his immediate reaction
Langton remembers the incident vividly. 'I remember pretty much all of it,' he said. 'Because we were slightly behind in the competition, I remember trying to go for as close to perfection as I could. It went slightly wrong and then I was in quite a lot of pain when I fell down.' He heard the crowd's reaction and was told to stay still. 'I got told to stay as still as I could on the mat. Then I was in a brace so I couldn't look around and see people's reactions.'
His first thought was to get back up and finish his routine. 'Initially I thought I needed to get back on the bar to finish my routine. The team were behind. It felt like I could have contributed to the team score. So I was disappointed in myself.' As more medical staff arrived, he realised he wouldn't be able to continue. 'Then when adrenaline wore out a bit, I was in some pain.'
Silver medal news and relief after scans
While Langton lay in the medical room in a neck brace, the England coach informed him that the team had won silver. 'It was about 10 or 15 minutes later. He was slightly worried, but to make it a bit more positive he told me straight away: 'You have either just won a gold or silver medal with your team, so congratulations.''
Langton admitted he feared serious injury. 'On the evening of when it happened, and then the early morning after, I was struggling to ignore that side of it because I didn't know. I knew I could talk still, I could move a lot of things. Then when I got the scans back, it was a big relief.'
Freak accident and recovery hopes
Reflecting on the incident, Langton said, 'After it happened, I didn't feel lucky at all. I was annoyed about what had happened. But looking back at it and having seen the video, I suppose it could have very easily gone a different way.'
Langton is not expecting to compete at the European Championships next month but hopes to return to training soon after being cleared of concussion. 'The second scan I had said there's some swelling in my neck, which I think is to be expected. My back has tightened up a little bit as well, but I don't think that's too surprising. It's nothing too serious and hopefully won't be too long.'
He described the fall as a freak accident. 'I've done that skill so many times – probably about 10,000 times and this has happened once. If you look at those stats then you can see this was a freak accident. I'll be pretty confident I can put that to one side.'
