Max Whitlock shines on pommel horse on competitive return at Scottish Championships
Three-time Olympic champion Whitlock dominated his favourite apparatus in his first outing since Tokyo 2020 before taking third in both parallel bars and high bar qualification.
Artistic Gymnastics
Max Whitlock made a successful return to competition at the Scottish Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Perth on Saturday (18 February).
In his first event since claiming a third Olympic gold medal at Tokyo 2020, the 30-year-old competed as a guest inside a packed Bell's Sports Centre.
Whitlock opened up with a 14.850 (6.7 difficulty score) on pommel horse, the apparatus on which he is the two-time reigning Olympic champion, with his South Essex club colleague Pavel Karnejenko next best on 13.250.
On a rare outing on the parallel bars, Whitlock scored 13.500 to take third behind Euan McLellan (13.750) and Hamish Carter (13.550).
And in his final event, the horizontal bar, the three-time Olympian was third again with 13.450 behind Cameron Lynn (13.600) and Carter (13.550).
Karnejenko retained his all-around title with a total of 81.900 ahead of Lynn and Carter.
The apparatus finals are on Sunday but Whitlock, who told Olympics.com of his mental health struggles after the Games in August 2021, will not compete as he plots a course to what would be a fourth Olympic appearance at Paris 2024.
What next for Max Whitlock?
Whitlock is scheduled to compete at next weekend's English Championships (24-26 February) in Telford.
The British Championships take place in Liverpool from 23-26 March with the event serving as trials for April's European Championships in Antalya, Turkey.