News about Max Whitlock

DAVID COVERDALE: Three-time Olympic champion Max Whitlock has announced he will retire after this summer's Games. The 31-year-old will go for gold on the pommel horse in Paris, where he could become the first gymnast to win four Olympic medals on the same apparatus. That, though, will now be the last act of a glittering career which has already brought 32 major international medals, including six at the Olympics, making him comfortably Britain's most successful gymnast of all time.

Max Whitlock's most recent victory came a fortnight ago when he won pommel horse gold at the Apparatus World Cup in Paris. That victory was significant because it was his first international competition since winning his third Olympic title in Tokyo two years ago, after which he suffered with his mental health and considered retirement. Now Whitlock is trying to be victorious at the World Championships in Antwerp this week, where daughter Willow will be watching him play in an arena for the first time.

BY DAVID COVERDALE: Exclusive INTERVIEW BY DAVID COVERDALE (British) BY DAVID COVERDALE: The Bell's Sports Centre in Perth offers a low-profile return to one of Britain's most prominent Olympians. However, we should just be thankful he is back at all. It's been 18 months since the Team GB gymnast competed on a pommel horse when he captured his third Olympic gold medal in Tokyo. We didn't know then that it was about the last act of his career. 'I didn't announce it publicly, but in my head, I was adamant I was finished,' Whitlock tells Sportsmail. I told everyone close to me that I wasn't going back to the gym and I was done.'

When visiting a former London 2012 venue to commemorate a sports charity with the Princess of Wales, the Prince of Wales displayed his boxing skills. William and Kate, who were flawlessly dressed in a vintage blue Chanel jacket, travelled to the Copper Box Arena in east London to participate in a match with Coach Core, which was sponsored by the pair's Royal Foundation. It was established in the capital in the same year that the Olympic and Paralympic Games were held, contributing to the event's legacy and a protester of the London riots. The couple, both 40, had the opportunity to meet some of the youngsters with whom the charity works, and got a glimpse of the sporting sessions on offer and how they can change young people's lives. When the case was over, William tried his hand at boxing. The nonprofit has been working to prepare the next generation of sports coaches who will help their communities, and has helped more than 750 homeless young people transition to community sports coaching apprenticeships.

RIATH AL-SAMARRAI AT THE ALEXANDER STADIUM: In the end, all the splashing and sprinting, flipping, and lifting had occurred, there was badminton. All forms of sports were present on the 11th day of sport, from the sublime to the bizarre - but the last blow was by Malaysian's Pearly Tan at 2.30 p.m. An outstanding Commonwealth Games, to all bar the most curmudgeonly. To take them for what they are, whether it is found in Ghanaian doormen or the fall and ascension of giants like Adam Peaty.