Mixed emotions as Rhys McClenaghan settles for Commonwealth Games silver medal

Putting it gently Rhys McClenaghan did not appear all that impressed. Four years after becoming the first gymnast from Northern Ireland to win a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games, McClenaghan had to settle for silver after his final pommel horse routine went ever so slightly wrong.

Coming as it did after England’s Joe Fraser produced a spot-on clean routine to earn himself a score of 14.833, delighting himself and his home crowd inside the Arena Birmingham, McClenaghan already knew the challenge that was put up to him.

He started cool and composed and intent it seemed to rise to that challenge, before a brief leg split towards the end of his routine cost him his shot at gold, a grimace on his face after his dismount confirming that he knew as much too.

It earned him a score of 14.133, which kept him in the silver medal position after the four gymnasts who followed, the Canadian Jayson Rampersad winning a surprise bronze with his next to last routine with a score of 14.000.

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Still the breakdown of McClenaghan’s score – 5.600 on difficulty, and 8.533 on execution – didn’t impress him either, and an inquiry was submitted to the judges minutes after. This, however, was rejected, although it wouldn’t have impacted on the medal positions anyway.

“It’s mixed emotions really because at first yes, I was disappointed, because it wasn’t my best routine and I would have had the same reaction in training,” he told the BBC. “I was super-happy with the first half of that routine, and also part of that reaction was getting so close to getting through that very clean routine but there was just that little hiccup in the middle.

“I’m just glad I stayed on the pommel horse. That’s the number one goal of any gymnastics apparatus routine: stay on and finish the routine, and I feel like that’s the reason there’s a medal wrapped around my neck.

“Some people get too wrapped up in trying to get the most difficult routine or trying to get the cleanest routine but it’s actually about the highest score, and trying to be better than everybody else in the world. I believe one day I’ll do that.”

Fraser scored 6.100 on difficulty, 8.733 on execution, the pressure of performing in front of his home Birmingham crowd in no way putting him off. The 23-year-old, who already won gold in the team competition, also overcome a difficult build-up to the Games, suffering a burst appendix just six weeks ago, also fracturing a bone in his foot which at one stage threatened his participation.

Despite all that, every one of Fraser’s hand placements were spot on, a routine which went for the all out or the nothing at all, and he duly pulled it off.

For McClenaghan, also now 23, a silver medal still proves his ability when it comes to the major championships, and he did reward himself with two thumbs up when the placings were finalised.

The Canadian Kenji Tamane and Marios Georgiou from Cyprus both fell off in the opening two routines, the Australian Jesse Moore at one point was looking as if he might challenge for the silver medal, before a late slip cost him too and he ended sixth with a score of 13.366

Tokyo Olympic champion Max Whitlock bypassed Birmingham as he looks to focus on the World Championships in Liverpool at the end of the year. It was Whitlock who McClenaghan beat when he won gold at the 2018 Games on the Gold Coast in Australia in thrilling circumstances, beating the English gymnast by virtue of his higher execution score after both athletes finished level in the final.

McClenaghan then backed up that performance by winning the European Championships in Glasgow a few weeks later, before winning a bronze medal at the 2019 World Championships. His hopes of an Olympic medal last summer ended however after two slips in the final cost him, and he finished up in seventh.

McClenaghan’s own preparations coming to Birmingham weren’t ideal either after he had been originally told he wouldn’t be able to defend his Commonwealth title after the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) ruled the Northern Ireland team couldn’t compete because previous performances for Ireland at World and European level.

It resulted in a series of protests, Commonwealth Games Northern Ireland accusing the FIG of having “completely disregarded” the Good Friday Agreement with its actions, and they eventually relented last month.

McClenaghan will get another shot at a European medal in Munich next month, when the championships are staged as part of a multi-sport event that includes athletics, cycling and rowing.