Great Britain’s Harry Hepworth and Jake Jarman hope to use their “good rivalry” to push each other to success at the World Artistic Gymnastic Championships in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Hepworth, who won bronze at the 2024 Paris Olympics, and reigning vault world champion Jarman will compete on the world stage for individual medals despite being close Team GB team-mates.
“It’s a good rivalry,” Hepworth told BBC Sport. “It’s not toxic in any way and I think that’s what has helped us get to where we are now.
“We just push each other. We are both doing insanely difficult vaults and understand how hard it is to perfect them.”
Jarman will bid to defend his title by building on his performance at May’s European championships, which saw him score a near-perfect 15.2 for his first vault.
He hopes to contain his “excitement” this time round, which he admits affected the execution of his second vault in that competition and cost him his third European vault title.
“That competition was a bit of a learning curve for me,” he said. “It was the first time I had nailed a vault like that in an event final.
“Normally, I tell myself to settle down and bring the energy levels down for the next performance, but that time round it was a bit of a shock.
“I was overwhelmed by excitement, so for my second vault my legs went to jelly and I took a couple more steps than I needed to.
“I need to iron out the smaller mistakes. I have to be a perfectionist when it comes to training these vaults.”
No team competition takes place at the world championships following an Olympics year, so individual medals only are stake.
The top 24 gymnasts in the all-around and the best eight on each individual apparatus, with a maximum of two per country, will qualify for the finals.
