A gymnast who honed his skills in Lowestoft has scooped a historic gold medal to become Great Britain’s first ever men’s world floor champion.
Giarnni Regini-Moran was victorious at the 2022 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool on Saturday, when he beat Japanese favourite Daiki Hashimoto with a score of 14.533, pipping his rival to the gold by just 0.033.
After the stunning victory, the 24-year-old, who is a former member of the Waveney Gymnastics Club and now the toast of the gymnastics world, said: “I’m lost for words!
“I was up in the second half, I just took it routine by routine. I didn’t really pay too much attention to the routines the other guys were doing, and obviously you could hear the crowd when people fell.
“In my head I was just thinking, ‘do your routine, land on your feet’. I was capable of a mid-14 score. I thought ‘if I land on my feet, I’ll get that score’, and that’s what I did.
“I honestly can’t explain how I feel just now. I don’t really believe it’s happened, but obviously it has. Maybe it will sink in soon, I don’t know. I’m lost for words.”
Regini-Moran’s medal was Britain’s fourth of the event at Liverpool’s M&S Bank arena and the national team's first gold.
He has a chance at another medal in the parallel bars final later today, and said he is trying to keep a cool head before that event.
“I’m just going to chill out,” he added. “P-bars for me was a bonus. I always came here with a vision of trying to make that floor final, and obviously I’ve got the gold medal now, so that’s pretty cool.
“It’s just about having some fun really. I’m not expecting anything to happen. I qualified in eighth. I’m just privileged to be in that final.”
Born in Great Yarmouth and raised in Lowestoft, Regini-Moran went to Gunton Primary School and Ormiston Denes Academy in the Suffolk town, before his family moved to Dartford in Kent and later to Manchester.
Ahead of the championships in Liverpool, he had said: "For me the World Championships is the biggest competition out there, it’s every nation and the very best gymnasts, so it’s the biggest test and I see it as the pinnacle of gymnastics."
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