MAX Whitlock is convinced he can keep the nerves at bay when he bids to become the first British gymnast to defend a world title in Montreal tonight.
The double Olympic champion admitted to experiencing a rare bout of self-doubt during a difficult qualification process this week, which left his hopes of emulating his two-time Rio heroics in tatters.
A period away from the sport to get married, followed by the tough process of upgrading his Olympic routines, contributed to a series of errors in a floor routine which left him languishing in 47th place in qualifying.
But Whitlock recovered to lead pommel qualifying, with a score of 15.300 leaving him the clear favourite to repeat his historic gold medal triumph from 2015.
Whitlock said: “Qualifying was crazy, but it feels good to know that I can get through my pommel routine despite being so nervous, and I can chill and really go for it.
“I am always nervous whether it is a competition in my gym or the Olympic Games, but I’ve never felt anything like that before, and it’s because my build-up had been unusually tight and intense.
“I won’t change anything – I just need to go out and do the same thing I’ve been doing for the past eight years. It’s the final, it’s a clean slate and it’s all about going out there and completing one more clean routine.
Victory would take Whitlock closer to matching Britain’s most successful world medallist, Beth Tweddle, who won golds on the uneven bars in 2006 and 2010, as well as the women’s floor title in London in 2009.
And it would vindicate his decision to forsake the all-around competition in which he won bronze in Rio, in order to concentrate on just two apparatus.
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