Kelvin keen to make the most of his Commonwealth Games experience

Gymnast Kelvin Cham is feeling good ahead of his first Commonwealth Games next month.

The 19-year-old has great potential and since he won the Scottish National Artistic Gymnastics Championships last March his career has been on an upwards curve.

The City of Glasgow athlete said:  “It is great to be going to the Games, it is a dream come true. I have been training all my life for it. I can’t wait.

“My older sister did gymnastics when we were young and my mum and dad worked in a Chinese restaurant so I went with her when she was training and didn’t really have any choice.

“I was about seven then and I soon began to love it and I joined my first club aged eight or nine.

“I’d say gymnastics is up there with one of the hardest sports you can do given the training involved, but for all of use who compete we get a real buzz.

I have been interested in mixed martial arts.

“Gymnastics in Scotland is in a great place and training with Dan Purvis is great because he has been to the Olympics and hopefully we can get a team medal and I can do my best individually out in Gold Coast.

“I have trained a bit with Dan now and he helps me a lot with tips on things to do and I have been asking him lots about what he eats just to try and learn him.

“I have known of him all my life since I was young so it is a bit crazy that he I now a friend, I used to watch him on TV. He is just a normal guy and when he is around the gym he likes a laugh and a joke.”

Cham currently coaches youngsters at his club having taken a step back from college to concentrate on the build-up to the Games in Australia.

And he added about the whole experience that awaits him:  “I can’t wait to meet other athletes and see big names.

“Qualification for the Games started at the start of 2017 so this was always the aim.

“My best events are vault and floor and apart from the team medal goal I want to make finals individually.

“Since I got selected it has been exciting. When the news became official official it was a weight off my shoulders and I could just train.

“Hopefully I can start pushing on and it gives me opportunities, this is my first major and I have been waiting for it all my life.

“The dream is the Olympics, especially for a gymnast. You have to aim as high as you can.

In the men’s Team Scotland gymnastics squad Cham will join Glasgow 2014 medallists Frank Baines and Daniel Purvis and fellow newcomers Hamish Carter and David Weir in the team event.

The Commonwealth Games take place in Gold Coast, Australia from April 4-15