Gymnast's somersault saves his life

A British gymnastic champion who accidentally fell 35ft from a hotel balcony escaped almost certain death when he performed a mid-air somersault to slow his descent.

Steven Jehu then managed to carry off a daredevil landing, miraculously hobbling away from his frightening ordeal with just minor injuries.

The 17-year-old plummeted to the ground when a safety rail came loose on a window he was trying to open on the fourth floor of a hotel in the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana. He was staying there ahead of next week's European Championships.

"My gymnastic knowledge and experience probably saved my life," he said. "There was a big window that could be opened. I leaned out over a metal bar but the bar suddenly broke. I couldn't do anything. I fell. I did a somersault on the way down and then braced myself for a regular gymnastic landing. I got away with it all right, although the European Championships for me ended before they even began."

Steven, who held out slim hopes of competing at this year's Athens Olympics, suffered a broken ankle in the fall but is expected to return to

Britain tomorrow after receiving hospital treatment.

The teenager was one of five junior athletes representing Britain in Slovenia and was due to take part in six events.

Mike Euridge, coaching director at his home gymnastics club in Exeter, said Steven's agility had helped him cope with the fall. "Steven is a first-rate gymnast," he said. "If anyone else fell from four floors up their body would probably rotate in the same way but he was able to control what happened and make a good landing.

"His fitness and spatial awareness probably saved him. When he ends his high bar routine he jumps 12 to 14 foot in the air every time and also lands from eight to 10 foot from the rings so he is trained in landing from heights. He does a one and half double twisting somersault off the vault so it is not as if he is unfamiliar with being in the air."