McClenaghan secures Ireland’s first European Pommel final at Glasgow 2018

9th August 2018, Sport HQ, Dublin; Irish gymnast Rhys McClenaghan qualified today in 1st place for the pommel horse final at the 2018 European Championships in Glasgow with a score of 15.266, a personal best. Already a junior European medalist, World Cup and 2018 Commonwealth Pommel-Horse Champion McClenaghan broke his record score on his specialist apparatus besting his score from both the recent World Cup in Turkey and the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. He will compete in the finals this coming Sunday 12^th August at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow.

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.

Commenting on their performance CEO of Gymnastics Ireland, Mr. Ciaran Gallagher said: ‘The guys today demonstrated real quality gymnastics. 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 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 Champion & Will Banthorpe, Judge Aidan O’Reilly and our Performance & Technical Manager Sally Johnson. Sunday’s Finals can’t come quick enough...’

Speaking of the results Sally Johnson, Gymnastics Ireland Performance & Technical Manager, said: ‘A great performance by our gymnasts today. Rhys competed a world class routine to qualify to the final in 1st place, our first senior finalist at a major championships.

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/

Full scores and photos of the event can be viewed on the official website at https://www.europeanchampionships.com/

Photography by Getty Images and video by UEG

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