By Jason Hughes, PA International

Steve Frew, Scotland's first ever gymnastic gold medallist at the Commonwealth Games, will turn his back on the sport unless he receives some financial backing.

The 29-year-old, who thought he only had an outside chance of bronze, provided the shock of the competition by sharing top spot with Cypriot Herodotos Giorgallas in the men's rings final.

But Frew, competing in his fourth Commonwealth Games, says he cannot keep ploughing money from his full-time job as a personal trainer into the sport.

"I have achieved this without any funding at all, so this gold medal is all mine," he said.

"If I got the correct backing I would be quite willing to go on. That is the main reason for retiring because I still believe my body is in top shape.

"But I can't really continue under my own steam any more and this will be the end unless somebody comes forward.

"Gymnastics is what I do and it is everything I know, so to live without gymnastics would be very difficult."

His full-time job means Falkirk-born Frew is only able to train for nine hours a week, and he admitted that was a long way from the regimes of England's gold medal winner Beth Tweddle and Australian Allana Slater, who the Scot shared a press conference with on Monday.

Tweddle receives funding from Sport England, while Slater has been under the tutelage of the Australian Institute of Sport since the age of five.

"They are probably laughing at me saying that I only train nine hours a week, that is nothing for a top athlete," he said.

"I would keep going if I received some funding from Sport Scotland - everything I earn from my job goes into my gymnastics."

Frew first appeared at the Commonwealth Games in 1990, and four years later he made the finals of the high bar and pommel horse, finishing in fifth and eighth.

And taking to the rings last in the final competition of Monday's early session, Frew did indeed save the best to last.

"I thought I had an outside chance of bronze if everything went right, but a gold wasn't even on my agenda," he said.

"I wanted to win a bronze so I could say, 'Look what I achieved without any funding,' but I am glad that plan didn't work."

Frew's golden performance pushed Kanukai Jackson, who is his team-mate at the Harrow School of Gymnastics, out of the bronze medal position, meaning the English gymnast could not add to his haul of two golds and a silver.

"I knew Kai was strong on rings as well so we had a joke about who would win," said Frew. "He has won enough medals at these Games so it was my turn to win one. I have been a gymnast for 20 years and it has taken a long time, but I got there in the end."