Irish Gymnasts hit high at 2017 World Gymnastics Championships

3rd October 2017, Montreal, Canada: Irish senior gymnasts Rhys McClenaghan and Andrew Smith finished in 14th and 21st positions respectively in their specialist apparatus at the 47th Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Montreal (CAN).

European and World Cup Medallist Rhys McClenaghan was first up for the Irish scoring 14.300 on his speciality piece the Pommel Horse ranking him 14th in the world.

Andrew Smith was next up on Floor.  It was a dramatic day for Smith, he completed his routine but there was a fault with the apparatus and he along other gymnasts in his group were allowed to compete again. Following his second routine he received a score of 13.933 giving him a world ranking of 21st position on this apparatus.

Speaking from Montreal, Gymnastics Ireland's CEO Mr Ciaran Gallagher commented:

'Andy showed he is a real experienced competitor after competing on the Floor only to realise his routine had been affected by an error with the apparatus, with the error fixed he composed himself and performed his routine hitting 21st place. First year senior Rhys hit a fantastic routine to place 14th on Pommel again showing he is a young gymnast with huge potential for the future. A great outing for Team Ireland and our congratulations go to not only Andy & Rhys, but also coaches Luke Carson & Sergey Sizhanov, our Performance & Technical Manager Sally Johnson and our judge Denis Donoghue'

For full results visit the official event website: https://mtl2017gymcan.com/en/home/ 

For more news follow us on social media by searching for @GymnasticsIre #GymasticsIreland  #Sportstartshere