Irish gymnast Rhys McClenaghan has qualified in 1st place for the pommel horse final at the 2018 European Championships in Glasgow.
His score of 15.266 is a personal best and he will now compete in the finals this Sunday 12th August at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow.
The final will be televised on RTÉ with details of the times and channels to be confirmed later.
Adam Steele, Ireland’s only All-Around gymnast, had a solid competition hitting 78.332 and ranking 13th in his first major championships with teammate Andrew Smith with an unlucky error in his first tumbling pass in an otherwise world-class routine scoring 13.566 on Floor.
“The guys today demonstrated real quality gymnastics,” said Gymnastics Ireland CEO Ciaran Gallagher.
“Andrew was unlucky with a bounce out of floor in an otherwise super routine. Adam in his first major championships displayed his credentials as a strong all-around gymnast with great potential for the future and history was again made by Rhys McClenaghan in securing Ireland’s first place in a Senior European Final with a huge score on Pommel ranking as top qualifier.”
“On behalf of all at Gymnastics Ireland congratulations to the guys, their coaches Luke Carson, Josh Dixon and Will Banthorpe, Judge Aidan O’Reilly and our Performance & Technical Manager Sally Johnson. Sunday’s Finals can’t come quickly enough.’
“It was a great performance by our gymnasts today,” added Sally Johnson, Gymnastics Ireland Performance and Technical Manager.
“Rhys competed a world class routine to qualify to the final in 1st place, our first senior finalist at a major championship.”
“Andrew and Adam showed real class today with solid performances and I’d like to congratulate them both.”
“We are all looking forward to cheering on Rhys in Sunday’s finals.”
Over the next few days RTÉ will have two exclusive web channels on the RTÉ player covering all 5 sports representing Ireland at the European Championships. For detailed information on streaming visit: https://www.rte.ie/player/ie/live/3/.
Gymnastics Ireland has signed two major sponsorship deals in 2018 with Nestle Cereals and Quatro kitwear.