Great Britain’s men’s artistic gymnastics squad delivered a superb week in Croatia, topping off the 2026 European Championships with five medals — two gold and three bronze — to cap a hugely successful campaign at Arena Zagreb.
Team Gold Retained in Style
The undoubted highlight came on the final day, Sunday 23 August, when the British team of Joe Fraser, Harry Hepworth, Jonas Rushworth, Courtney Tulloch and Sol Scott successfully defended their European team title. In a contest that went down to the very last routine, Great Britain held off a spirited fightback from World Gymnastics 2 to win gold with a score of 246.728 to 246.158, with Switzerland taking bronze on 242.094.
It was a nervy finale: Tulloch fell on parallel bars but battled through to keep Britain’s tally intact, while Rushworth’s steady opening routine on the notoriously tricky pommel horse set the tone. The gold marked Britain’s fourth men’s team title in European Championships history and their second in succession, following victory at the 2025 Championships.
Fraser’s Golden Return
Joe Fraser, the 2019 world champion on parallel bars and three-time European gold medallist from 2022, capped his comeback from a break after the Paris 2024 Olympics with a first-ever major horizontal bar title. His score of 14.300 was enough to edge Cyprus’s Marios Georgiou by a tenth of a point.
“I’m very, very proud,” Fraser said afterwards. “It’s not just me. It’s everyone behind the scenes — my coaches, my family. Everyone contributes to these moments. It’s very special.”
Fraser added a second individual medal in the same session, taking bronze on parallel bars with the same score of 14.300, behind Croatia’s Illia Kovtun and Turkey’s Ferhat Arican.
Bronze for Hepworth and Scott
Britain’s medal collection was rounded out by two further bronzes. Harry Hepworth, the Paris 2024 Olympic bronze medallist on vault, took bronze on floor exercise with 14.300, behind Israel’s Artem Dolgopyat and World Gymnastics 2’s Arsenii Dukhno. Hepworth also played a starring role in the team final, delivering the decisive floor routine that sealed gold for Britain on the last rotation.
Sol Scott, competing at his first senior European Championships, claimed bronze on vault with a huge triple-twisting Yurchenko scoring 14.199, finishing behind Ukraine’s Nazar Chepurnyi and World Gymnastics 2’s Aleksei Usachev. Scott went on to contribute a strong 14.333 on vault in the team final in front of his grandmother, who was watching from the stands.
A Team Built on Depth
The result underlines the strength in depth of the British men’s programme heading towards the LA28 Olympics. Alongside the senior medals, Britain’s junior team — led by Uzair Chowdhury and George Atkins — also won gold in the junior team event on 237.559, edging World Gymnastics 2 by 0.199 with Italy taking bronze.
Rings specialist Courtney Tulloch, competing at an 11th European Championships, narrowly missed a podium finish, scoring 14.366 in the still rings final but losing out on bronze via tiebreak to Greece’s Eleftherios Petrounias.
Final Medal Count
- GOLD Team — Fraser, Hepworth, Rushworth, Tulloch, Scott
- GOLD Horizontal Bar — Joe Fraser
- BRONZE Floor Exercise — Harry Hepworth
- BRONZE Parallel Bars — Joe Fraser
- BRONZE Vault — Sol Scott
The 2026 Men’s Artistic Gymnastics European Championships ran from 19–23 August at Arena Zagreb, Croatia.
Image: For illustration purposes.
