Prashanth makes light of the load

Graham Croker

Australian and Sydney University gymnast Prashanth Sellathurai, now going by the special sobriquet “Prince of the Pommel”, could be paying extra baggage fees on his return from India.

Sellathurai, a Sydney University Elite Athlete Program member for the past five years, will be loaded down medals following four successful days of competition at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

He shared a team gold with Joshua Jefferis, Samuel Offord, Luke Wiwatowski and Thomas Pichler, as the Australians relegated England to the team silver medal and Canada to the bronze.

On the individual apparatus Sellathurai vindicated his world No.3 ranking on the pommel horse by winning the gold medal with 15.500 points, edging our England’s Max Whitlock (15.125) for the silver medal and Singapore’s Jonathan Chan (14.200) for the bronze. Sellathurai won the silver medal in the same event at the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games.

He also collected a bronze medal on the parallel bars with a score of 14.000. Team-mate Jefferis won the gold with 14.625, with England’s Luke Folwell taking the silver with 14.200. And he had a chance to add another medal on the rings but a stumble on dismount dashed his chances.

Sellathurai is in his 2^nd year of a Bachelor of Applied Science (MRS) Diagnostic Radiography degree at Sydney University, having previously studied a Bachelor of Health Sciences.