Twelve years ago, a wide-eyed nine-year-old named Reuben Ward watched Dan Keatings claim gymnastics gold for Scotland right there in Glasgow. Something clicked. He didn't dream of winning — not yet. He just wanted to pull on a Scotland vest and compete.

Now the 21-year-old has done far more than that. Ward became Scotland's all-around gymnastics champion at the Commonwealth Games, winning gold in the same city where his dream was born.

"I remember seeing him win and seeing how it was a big deal to people and I thought 'I want to do that'," Ward told BBC Sport Scotland, still buzzing from his own victory. "So to be here now, having done it myself, is spectacular."

The path to gold wasn't smooth. After finishing fourth with the Scotland team on Friday, Ward sat in seventh place after the floor exercise. But once he hit the pommel horse — his strongest event — everything changed. He streaked into the lead and never looked back.

There had been whispers among his teammates that gold might be possible, if all went well. They had seen him in training. They knew what he was capable of.

The final moments were nerve-wracking. A strong performance on the parallel bars, plus a small scoring appeal that added 0.1 extra points, kept his lead at 0.550. All he had to do was stick his landing on the horizontal bar.

He did more than stick it. As he hit the mat, his coach Jake Seager fell to his knees in celebration. They embraced before the score was even official — they knew.

Ward was barely able to speak afterward. "Falling short on Friday was heartbreaking and I'm just so overwhelmed, man," he said. "I can barely put words together." He added that he had imagined this moment the night before, lying awake picturing the emotions. The reality, he said, beat those expectations "by a mile."

His parents Brendan and Lisa, who moved from East Kilbride to Bury before he was born, were in the crowd to see it happen. For Ward, Glasgow and East Kilbride have always felt like second homes.

The celebration plans were modest: hotel food, probably a sleepless night, then back to work for Monday's floor and pommel events where he's again a medal contender. The big party comes Tuesday with his teammates — "my boys," he called them.

"I'm hoping we'll get to experience a bit of Glasgow," Ward said. Given what he just accomplished, they've earned it.