YOG 2010: Gymnast Oldham finally gets his hands on gold

From Tom Reynolds, Sportsbeat, in Singapore

 SAM Oldham banished his Youth Olympic Games demons in Singapore to collect a superb gold medal - and is keeping his fingers crossed he's done enough to secure Commonwealth Games selection.

GOLDEN BOY: Sam Oldham returns to the horizontal bar to finally bag gold at the Youth Olympic Games (Singapore Press Holdings)

The 17-year-old has enjoyed the most turbulent of weeks in the Lion City, suffering a heavy fall in the horizontal bar section of the all-around final last Wednesday as the silver medal slipped through his fingers.

In the all-around competition, Oldham was forced to settle for fifth but he got straight back on the pommel horse on Saturday to clinch silver and miss out on gold by the narrowest of margins.

On Sunday, the parallel bars and the horizontal bar finals represented his last chances at victory, but after finishing an agonising fourth in the former, Oldham had just one more shot at glory.

But as he returned to the scene of his colossal fall from grace, Oldham produced the goods back on the bar to claim the gold he was so desperate for with a score of 14.375 to bring the curtain down on his competition in style.

"I'm really happy as that has sort of made up for everything that has gone on earlier in the week," said Oldham, who finished 0.250 points ahead of Spain's silver medallist Nestor Abad.

"When I arrived here I was desperate to go home with a gold medal but it has been a difficult week so there was a lot of pressure in the high bar.

 "I just concentrated on making it a perfect routine and it worked so I'm delighted. It's been a tough week at times but all I have tried to do is concentrate on the next routine and finally I have got the gold."