Jake Jarman exclusive: 'I knew if I just got through clean, I could medal'
The British artistic gymnast claimed a first all-around medal with silver at the European Championships taking place in Türkiye despite changing the way he competes when 'curiosity' got the better of him.
Artistic Gymnastics
“I got curious,” Jake Jarman tells Olympics.com of the moment he decided to look at the scores ahead of the final rotation of the artistic gymnastics European Championships in Antalya, Türkiye on Thursday (13 April).
The rising British star was in with a chance of a first-ever major all-around medal – the combined score of all six pieces of apparatus for men – and was about to go on high bar when he took a cheeky look at the rankings, something he would never normally do, preferring instead to just focus on himself and his routines.
“I said to Ben (Howells), my coach, before the competition, ‘don't tell me the scores, I don't want to see scores’ and then I just did it before high bar, I couldn’t help myself! I was getting curious. I thought it would make me a bit more nervous, but I started to get excited knowing that if I just got through clean, I could medal.”
And got through clean he did, scoring 13.266 to achieve a total of 83.463 to finish in silver-medal position behind the host nation’s Adem Asil on 84.965 and Illia Kovtun of Ukraine won bronze on 83.032.
“I couldn't be happier with how I did everything today, even though there are a few errors in some places, it's hard to go through everything and be absolutely perfect. But I couldn't be happier with the result that I've come out with – second all-around. It's my first all-around Europeans medal and I’m absolutely over the moon.”
Jake Jarman, just getting started
Jarman is just 21 with only two years as a senior behind him but due to the absence of some of the more experienced members of the team due to injury, found himself one of the leaders in this group.
The team in Antalya comprised Harry Hepworth and Luke Whitehouse, both British debutants at this level, and Joshua Nathan who has started making inroads into the international scene with a sixth on pommel horse and ninth in the all-around at the 2021 worlds.
Courtney Tulloch, the 2022 world bronze medallist on rings, joined Jarman in being one of the senior figures, with the troupe claiming team bronze on Tuesday (12 April), behind Türkiye in second, and history-making Italy who won a first ever men’s European team title.
“I was thinking about this before this competition actually,” said Jarman, “that me and Courtney are one of the most experienced members on the team and it's so weird because I'm not even the oldest person on the team. I'm still one of the younger ones.”
An ominous statement for global rivals headed not only to the World Championships in Antwerp in October and the Paris 2024 Olympic Summer Games, but beyond, too.
Jake Jarman, flying high on the gymnastics scene
In 2022, Jarman claimed eight international medals, including world bronze, four Commonwealth Games gold medals, and three European medals including two titles in the team event and on vault.
Courtesy of finishing in the top three in the team event at the World Championships, Great Britain’s men’s and women’s teams have qualified a quota spot each for the Paris Olympics, with five places each available for the gymnasts, selected by the national gymnastics’ federation weeks before the Games.
So this cracking start to the 2023 season bodes well for Jarman, who was a reserve for the GB team that finished fourth at Tokyo 2020. He also has a chance to win more hardware at the 2023 European Championships on the last day of the competition on Sunday (16 April), where he will defend his vault title and aim for a first European parallel bars medal.
Jarman already has the world-level difficulty on a number of pieces, particularly floor and vault, but as he gains more experience across all six apparatus where consistency is key, Jarman will be a force to be reckoned with on the world stage. Being a quick learner helps too.
“Those kinds of errors, you can fix fairly easily,” Jarman said of the minor faults in some routines at the Europeans. “I feel like a lot of them is to do with nerves because it was a bit shaky at the start for me.
“I kind of had to slow myself down a lot after floor because pommels is one of those pieces where you have to really be a bit more methodical and really relaxed otherwise you can come off really easily, but I managed to get through everything clean and that's all I could have ever asked for.”