MAX Whitlock endured a mixed afternoon at the English Championships.

The Basildon based star, who trains at the South Essex Gymnastics Club, scored a fantastic 16.4 to win gold ahead of Louis Smith on the pommel horse.

But the rest of his competition was marred by a quad injury sustained during the warm up which led to him finishing 11th in a disrupted all around competition.

“We will take the positives out the competition for Max and that’s certainly the score he got on the pommel,” said Whitlock’s coach Scott Hann.

“The injury he picked up isn’t anything too serious but it meant he couldn’t do the vault and he couldn’t do his floor routine properly either.

“But we were really looking at this competition for Max to try out one or two new things and that did result in some mistakes being made.

“It’s all about the Rio and the next Olympics for Max though and that’s what we’re working towards with him at the moment.”

Whitlock and his South Essex Gymnastics club-mates Brinn Bevan and Jay Thompson will next be back in action at the British Championships which will be held at the Echo Arena in Liverpool at the end of the month.