3 finalists & 12 hours of live TV broadcast - Catch-up on RTE Player now!

26th April 2021, 13:21p.m. | International

The 2021 European Gymnastics Championships closed out yesterday and it has been a great event for Gymnastics Ireland... A historic 3 finals secured including our first women’s & men’s All-Around finalists in Emma Slevin & Adam Steele who firmly established themselves among Europe's best. Also a great outing for Meg Ryan who competed 3 apparatus prioritising a longer-term build up towards Tokyo 2021 given that she is in reserve place for the Games. While the pommel final didn’t go Rhys McClenaghan’s way this time around he is a European finalist none the less and as ever we are all super proud, his focus now is firmly on the Olympic Games.

It was an important return to the field of play after 18 months of no competition due to Covid19 and an event governed by strict covid19 travel & operational protocols... Our entire team handled it brilliantly. Congratulations to the gymnasts & their clubs (Renmore GC & Douglas GC), our coaches Luke Carson, Will Banthorpe, Sally Batley & Emma Hamill, our Performance & Technical Manager Sally Johnson, physio

Julianne Ryan and judges Colm & Mary Murray.

In 2018/2019 the European Broadcast Union (EBU) agreed 2 important 'free-to-air' TV deals with European Gymnastics and the international gymnastics federation FIG. The roll-out from an Irish perspective was delayed in 2020 due to Covid19 so this was the first major championships to operate under the new deal giving RTE direct access to all content for finals as a member of the EBU. We have been working with our friends at RTE to ensure we can get the best out of this crucial new deal and with 12 hours of live TV broadcast delivered it's fair to say this was a great success. This included moving the news so the pommel horse final was live on RTE One featuring prominently in the traditional sport primetime slot. I also must congratulate our commentators and studio pundits Caomhán Murray, Denis Donoghue, Andy Smith & Chloe O'Toole for doing such a great job of telling the story of the all the action to the audience.

All-in-all a great week for our sport and encouraging for everyone to see gymnasts back in action... We now look forward to getting our clubs open again and await further information from government regarding their plan for reopening indoor sport.

Next stop Tokyo 2021...

Ciaran Gallagher

Chief Executive Officer

To catch-up or re-live the action from the 3 days of finals watch now on RTE Player...

https://www.rte.ie/player/series/european-gymnastics-championships/SI0000008375?epguid=IH000402400

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