Eamon Montgomery accepts ‘scary or sore’ all part of Team NI push for Commonwealth Games success

“I feel a good bit older now from Birmingham, definitely more experience and stuff...I've done a load more international competitions since then so I think I'm four years more experienced definitely,” said Montgomery. “I remember at the time in Birmingham being really annoyed about it (fifth) but, yeah, I'm happy enough with how it went, it was my first big multi-sport...but I definitely thought I could have been in the podium and I’m hoping this time it happens.

“I think I'll make a medal on floor as my goal and then an all-round final or a high bar final.”

Montgomery’s post-Birmingham progress was curtailed by having to go under the knife.

“Just over time, building up over and over again, my ankles were just getting battered so in 2024 I got surgery on my ankle,” he said ahead of this week’s Commonwealth Games start. “It took me maybe 10 months to fully get back and then when I did I said I'll try and do all the pieces now instead of just four, so it's six pieces.

"I feel all right, my back gets it sometimes, my ankle gets it, but, overall, I'm healthy.

“I know it (injury) comes with it but that's what you're training for, you need to be ready to go, you need to be in top condition to do a routine there.”

Montgomery showed he was back to full fitness by medalling at the World Cup.

“It was good, it was good to be back after, I don't know, nearly two years off like an international competition,” he said. “So to get out there and show I can still compete with the best there is...it's good to know.”

Speaking ahead of Glasgow, Montgomery reflected on the differences from Birmingham and his preparation plan.

“I would have said at the time I wasn't nervous and, looking back on it now, I was,” he said. “You could see how tense I was in it all and I guess I was younger.

"I'm way more mature now and I know myself a bit more, so I know when I'm going into training just how to gauge it right and what do I need to do.

“I was perfecting my routine for the year of Birmingham and then I kind of swapped it around, added some stuff and then since my ankle I took some stuff out...but this routine is the hardest I've ever put together, so, yeah, it's hard work.

“The routine would have been an average difficulty then but I was quite clean, so it broke even or whatever.

"But this time it's going to be a high difficulty and hopefully clean as well, I'll have to do both.

“It's just that's why you're training every day, it's meticulous, you need to be every tiny detail.

"Your toes pointed, your legs being straight, you need to just go through that...that's how you get it perfect and then to get a harder, difficult routine you've got to just come in one day and decide.

"Okay, I need to push this here and even if it’s scary or sore you need to just pick what you're doing and you have to go for it fully.”