Max Whitlock regained his world title to take gold on the pommel at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Stuttgart.

The pommel champion from 2015 and 2017 held off a world-class field that included Commonwealth gold medallist Rhys McClenaghan to secure a third world title.

Despite incurring a mistake early into his routine, the Commonwealth silver medallist and reigning Olympic champion recovered to put together a huge score of 15.500 that confirmed him as the 2019 World champion.

“This feels incredible; it’s an emotional one for me. It was a very tough final with great competitors and the standard was so high with margins so tiny,” Whitlock told British Gymnastics.

“It’s been such a team journey with my coach Scott (Hann) and my family. Our preparation was incredible. I made a tiny error early on, but if anything that made me more determined to perfect every skill from then on. I’m just incredibly happy."

It was a winning weekend all round for Team England gymnasts as Whitlock’s gold medal success was backed up moments later by Becky Downie who put together an unforgettable routine on the uneven bars to take silver.

Having missed the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games through injury, the double Commonwealth champion from Glasgow 2014 was back to her best to claim her first individual world medal.  

Downie had led for the majority of the final and was guaranteed a medal but was just pipped to gold by the final gymnast to perform.

"It’s been so long, so many years; I can’t believe I’ve finally done it,” said Downie.

  “I’ve worked so, so hard every year. This means everything to me. This makes everything worth it. This could be my last world’s and I put my heart and soul in to it and I’ve done it."