Battling through the pain barrier, the 23-year-old also secured his place in the final of the four devices, just five weeks after being rushed to hospital for emergency surgery.
After stumbling through his final days of preparation while wearing a protective air boot, Fraser, the 2019 world parallel bars champion, was forced to make the decision to withdraw from the vault and floor device, a decision that put him out of the fray. for the all-around title.
Fraser posted his decision on social media earlier on Friday, explaining: “I’m really devastated that I didn’t do everything and I’m sorry to everyone. I believed I could come back and I did everything I could to help myself. getting ready for it, but it just wasn’t supposed to be.”
But despite the obvious pain of some of his landings, Fraser finished his evening shift with a top goalscorer routine on the high bar, before letting his emotions run wild as he soared through the air, whipping up the packed crowd before being overwhelmed by his elated team friends.
“I’m hardcore,” Fraser said afterwards. “I’ve had countless times where I thought, ‘This isn’t the intention, but the thought of performing in front of a home crowd made me want to push myself and achieve great things.
“I’ve been through so much adversity and before the high bar my coach said ‘I believe in you’ and that was exactly what I needed. Holding the dismount made everything real. Even with the injuries I’ve had , to walk away with that landing, I was just so proud of myself.”
Fraser’s displays helped the England team – also consisting of James Hall, Giarni Regini-Moran, Jake Jarman and Courtney Tulloch – retain their team title by a huge margin of more than 13 points over Canada in the silver medal position and Cyprus, who curbed their courage to face Australia and take a surprise bronze.
The results mean the hosts will have a full quota of apparatus finalists early next week, with Regini-Moran making three, Hall and Jarman two each, and reigning champion Tulloch taking his usual position at the top of the ring standings.
Hall, who won two individual silver medals on the Gold Coast four years ago behind his now-retired teammate Nile Wilson, topped the overall standings with 82,550 points, ahead of his teammate Jarman, who made his Commonwealth Games debut. in second place at 82,050.
And Hall admitted that Fraser’s struggle to beat odds had inspired the team to produce a stunning run of performances that left their rivals behind and positioned them for a clean run of all-around and apparatus gold medals in the rest of the Games.
“You just have to look at that man and you’ll be inspired,” Hall said. “He had appendicitis surgery five weeks ago, and if it got to a point where I walked into the gym and thought I didn’t feel like it today, all I had to do was talk to Joe and it just made it happen.”
Fraser’s pommel score of 14.85 surpassed that of Northern Ireland’s Rhys McClenaghan, who defeated Max Whitlock on the Gold Coast five years ago, although the reigning champion is expected to bring greater difficulty to his final routine.
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23-year-old McClenaghan, who is competing in his first major event since his quest for Olympic gold failed in Tokyo last summer, said: “I was happy enough with that performance, but I feel I can add a full point to that. figure.
“I’m not sure if I felt extra pressure, but I always feel a certain level of pressure and I feel like that comes more from myself than from the crowd watching me. I did my job today under that pressure and I’m excited for the final.”
Additional reporting from PA