Olympic dreams have become reality for a gymnast who honed his skills in Lowestoft.
Giarnni Regini-Moran has been named in British Gymnastics men's artistic team for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
With strong links to the east coast, Regini-Moran vaulted his way to a medal at the European championships last month - just four years after suffering a career-threatening injury.
And now Regini-Moran - who was born in Great Yarmouth, raised in Lowestoft and was a former member of the Waveney Gymnastics Club - has been selected to represent Team GB at the Olympic Games.
The 22-year-old will compete in his first Olympics just weeks after claiming his first major championship medal as a senior.
A former Gunton Primary School and Ormiston Denes Academy pupil in Lowestoft, before his family moved to Dartford in Kent and later to Manchester.
Regini-Moran said: “It’s an absolute dream come true to be selected for the Olympic Games, something you work so hard for, it’s the pinnacle of any athlete’s sporting career.
"For me I think it means even more after injury in 2016, all that hard work, grit and determination that goes on into coming back and now to have that rewarded with the biggest sporting event on the planet is a dream.
"The journey I’ve been on since just before Rio with an amazing support team behind me has been special, I’m so excited and can’t wait to wear that flag on my chest and do everyone proud.”
That journey as a talented Waveney Gymnastics Club member who became the first ever boy from Suffolk to represent Great Britain at an international competition in 2011.
A year later the fully equipped, state-of-the-art gym centre on Notley Road, Lowestoft hosted three international teams as part of an official London 2012 Pre Games Training Camp.
Since then Regini-Moran has been no stranger to international stage achievements, winning the Youth Olympic Games and Junior European Championship titles, but in July 2016, just before the Olympics in Rio, he snapped his knee ligaments, tore his hamstring and fractured his leg after falling from the high bar while training.
Two years out from the sport followed, but he battled back and is now part of the GB squad at the Olympic Games being held between July 23 and August 8.
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