Max Whitlock is still hard at work on the move which will secure his name in gymnastics history as he prepares to defend a trio of Commonwealth Games gold medals on the Gold Coast this week.

The Basildon based 25-year-old is desperate to join an elite group of gymnastics to have a unique manoeuvre named after them in the sport’s all-important Code of Points.

But, despite working on the top-secret sequence since prior to his double Olympic gold medal triumph in Rio two years ago, Whitlock has admitted there is still some time before ‘The Whitlock’ becomes a reality.

Whitlock said: “Nailing my own move is proving really hard because time is just flying by and every time I get a window to work on it, something else seems to come up.

“It has always been an ambition of mine to get a move named after me in the Code of Points but I don’t want it to be something relatively easy, it needs to be something really special and that makes it all the harder.

“I had hoped to have it ready for this year but I don’t want to go into a competition and try it for the fun of it, it needs to be fully ready and help to make a difference.”

His historic Rio success has failed to dim Whitlock’s evident motivation levels, and he will go into his three events on the Gold Coast - pommel, floor and the men’s team event - driven by a never-ending desire to improve.

An uncharacteristic stumble in his floor routine at last year’s World Championships in Montreal cost him the chance of a medal - although he followed up by taking gold on the pommel - and he believes he is well equipped to put that right in Australia.

“It’s been my target ever since Rio to focus on pommel and floor and make sure I pursue those upgrades and go through the process of turning them from risky into clean additions,” Whitlock added.

“At the worlds they were a little more rusty but I am more confident with it now. I’ve worked on the tumble that I made the mistake on, I nailed it at the British Championships recently and I am ready to go on from there.”

Whitlock was actually beaten into second place by Scotland’s Frank Baines in the domestic competition earlier in March, but remains the emphatic favourite to repeat the three gold medals he won in Glasgow in 2014.

Whitlock’s likely challengers will be domestic ones from the likes of Baines and Rio bronze medallist Nile Wilson.