European Championships 2022 - Great display by Ireland’s Junior Women’s gymnasts in Munich
12th August 2022, 20:49p.m. | International
12.08.22 Munich, Germany; Team Ireland gymnasts Lily Russell, Maeve McGuinness, Sophie McGuinness, Aisling Hurley, and Caoimhe Ní Drisceoil have today concluded competition at the 2022 European Championships in Munich. The exciting young team performed with composure and style in Munich’s world-renowned 15,000 capacity Olympiahalle as they guided Ireland to a 15th place finish in the team event. Maeve, Lily and Sophie were also involved in the All-Around Finals in which they finished 52nd, 53rd, and 57th respectively.
As the team’s top performer today, Maeve discussed her performance with local media: “I’m very happy with how I performed. I just did what I have been doing in training and it worked. It was very exciting with the big crowd which was a step up from EYOF last month.”
Lily Russell was interviewed following the competition and had the following to say: “I’m very proud of the team. We wanted to go out there and do our best and that’s what we did. This was really just a learning experience, we weren’t going out there to get really high scores, it was mostly about performing in front of such a big crowd.”
Speaking from the Olympiahalle in Munich, Gymnastics Ireland’s Women’s National Performance Coach, Sandra Stevenson reflected on the event: “It’s brilliant to see such a strong display from our junior gymnasts out in the arena today. The team have gained hugely from being able to train alongside our seniors during the build up to this campaign and this was clearly demonstrated in the way they handled themselves, in what is a very large gymnastics arena. Congratulations to all the gymnasts, personal coaches and wider support teams behind the gymnasts for all their hard work preparing the teams.”
Gymnastics Ireland’s Performance and Technical Manager Sally Johnson added: “Well done to our Junior team who competed well today. Certainly an exciting future for them all! Our teams will be returning home to prepare for selections for the Northern European Championships. Special thanks to Jessie Barr and Julianne Ryan for all the support for the teams. Well done to all our coaches and clubs in all the preparation of the gymnasts. Congratulations to our judges also for their excellent work at this event also.”
Commenting on the today’s performances and looking ahead to next week, Gymnastics Ireland CEO Mr. Ciaran Gallagher said: “The junior girls were great today! They are such a young team and have big potential. They were so composed on a big stage in a huge arena. The girls displayed some technically great work that can be built on for the years ahead including another EYOF and European Championships still as juniors! Congratulations to the team, our coaches, judges & support staff. We now look forward to the Men’s event next week!"
Full competition results are available at: https://results.mun.mev.atos.net/EGJ2022/en/results/artistic-gymnastics/daily-schedule.htm
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