Gymnastics: Cox springing back into action

Floored by the enormity, he felt unable to continue. Cox withdrew from the Scottish team and announced his immediate retirement. He subsequently disappeared from the gymnastics world stage and was last heard of pursuing a teaching career.

Three years on we are standing in the Glasgow gym where Cox has been quietly embarking on a comeback. On first impressions he seems more relaxed, something he himself would freely admit, no longer radiating the frenetic energy of a young man not going places as fast as he would like.

It is seven months since Cox, 26, first tested the waters, albeit initially with far less grand ambitions. "I have been back in the gym since August, but only because I felt I was putting on a bit of weight and wanted to get fitter again," he says. "My fiancee Kim [McIlroy] coaches the women at Bellahouston and I thought it would be a good way to get back in shape."

But within weeks his passion for the sport had been re-ignited. After talking with Marius Gherman, head coach for City of Glasgow who, in turn, spoke with Scottish national men's coach Jim Holt, it was agreed Cox could compete at the Malar Cup in Sweden last November.

The five-man squad, comprising Cox alongside Tom Barnes, Liam Davie, Ross Soutar and Ryan McKee, took team silver. Cox also claimed individual gold on high bar and silver on parallel bars. As new beginnings went, it boded well.

Cox likes to view it as an organic process and is determined not to get too far ahead of himself. He is training 21 to 25 hours a week around his job as a PE teacher in Livingston, where he lives, and Bathgate. "It's been low key. I didn't want to be shouting: 'Here I come, I'm back'," he laughs. "In my mind I see it as gradual progression but, in truth, it's been quite quick."

Next weekend Cox will get to test his mettle when he travels to the British Championships in Liverpool. While he initially planned to specialise on his two best pieces – high bar and parallel bars – he will now compete on all six apparatus.

It will provide an early opportunity to gauge his form ahead of the Commonwealth Games qualification criteria being released next month and the first event to fall into the selection process which is the Scottish Championships in June. How things pan out long term, says Cox, rests on how past injuries hold up.

"I've had both shoulders and my left ankle pretty much reconstructed as well as stress fractures in the L4 and L5 in my back," he says. "It's not pain free, but nor is it anything I can't deal with in training. My coach has been supportive. He is pretty wise and knows when to leave it alone and when to give it a go."

While now coached by Gherman, a former Romanian world and Olympic bronze medallist, he remains in touch with former mentor Tan. Cox is reticent to dwell on the events of 2010, but his disbelief remains palpable.

"It was out of the blue for almost everyone involved," he says. "Tan was the national coach who had produced almost all of the good gymnasts to have come out of Scotland at that time. It was a huge shock."

Tan, a former Chinese internationalist and the first man to execute a triple back dismount on the high bar, was made redundant following restructuring by Scottish Gymnastics. Despite his four decades of international experience, and his key role in securing the services of Daniel Keatings and Daniel Purvis for Scotland, Tan effectively found himself jobless only days before he was due to leave for the Commonwealth Games.

Cox, however, says he has no regrets about forgoing his own place in Delhi.

"At the time it really was the right decision for me not to go," he says. "I did feel sorry for my family and everyone else who had supported me over the years. I don't want to go back over old ground, but the way things had gone I simply wouldn't have felt right going on a personal level."

While the rest of the team jetted out to Delhi, Cox began a new life without gymnastics. "I was in the middle of my teaching post grad so that kept me occupied," he says. "I could have chosen not to watch it on television, but I did because I wished the best for everyone."

Did he feel a sense of detachment? "It was definitely a mixed couple of weeks – months in fact – of being up and down," he admits. "People would ask what happened, I had to explain it again and again. That was hard."

When he talks it is clear that life has two distinct tracks: before Delhi and now. This time around, says Cox, things feel different. "There are not the same pressures as when I was doing it professionally and it was my job," he says. "Before, gymnastics was all there was for me. When things went badly nothing could console me. I now feel more well-rounded. I have Kim, our house, my job – gym is simply an additional thing that I'm happy to have in my life.

"Before, I was going to competitions every second weekend, I was based in Lilleshall [with the British squad] and living out of a suitcase. There was always something to get ready for, be it Europeans or world championships. I was peaking and troughing. Now I have one set target I feel much more comfortable and relaxed."

Testament to his new-found life balance, Cox will get married on March 29, only five days after the British Championships. But it is next year's Commonwealth Games that he views as an opportunity to re-write a happy ending to his gymnastics career.

"I think we have a great chance for Glasgow," he says. "That's another big reason why I wanted to come back and finish on a positive rather than the anti-climax it was with Delhi. With the two Dans [Purvis and Keatings], plus the younger guys in the squad, we have a good shout of a team medal as well as individual ones."

What colour does he hope that medal will be? Cox smiles. "Gold. I have no idea why we wouldn't be aiming for that," he says. "With Purvis and Keatings we have two guys who are in the top eight or nine in the world – and I would like to think I can still do it when it counts."