England's star gymnast Max Whitlock has heaped praise on teenage teammate Nile Wilson after the English team effectively won Commonwealth gold in the artistic team final earlier today.
Whitlock led the way for England with a 90+ score over the six apparatus for the first time in his career, as the team amassed a total of 266.804 to lead Scotland by over six points with no remaining contenders left to compete this evening.
Speaking of young teammate Wilson, who has qualified alongside Whitlock for the individual all-around final, Whitlock told Sports Mole: "He's a great gymnast. I've said for a long time now that the juniors are coming through and looking strong and Nile's one of them boys.
"He's coming up, he's 18 years old and he'll be pushing on our door soon. His skill level is very high for his age and in a couple of years' time he'll be amazing."
Whitlock has qualified for all but one of the apparatus finals after he was just edged out by Wilson and another Englishman, Kristian Thomas, in qualification for the horizontal bar. Even though Thomas, Wilson and Whitlock registered the top three scores, just two gymnasts from each country are allowed to progress to the final.
Scotland are set to claim the team silver medal and break up the Australia-Canada-England trio that have shared the team medals at every Commonwealth Games since 1978, with Wales also delivering a better-than-expected showing in fifth place.
Whitlock and the England team prepared for the Games with their neighbours, and he is impressed by the state of gymnastics in Great Britain.
"We've been training with all three of the teams for like three, four weeks up to this competition and they've all looked great," he added.
With one gold medal effectively to his name already, Whitlock is looking to add to that and improve his haul from Delhi four years ago, when he won two silvers and a bronze.
England's Commonwealth team title is their first since the 2002 Games in Manchester.
Pascal Lemesre
