Rhys McClenaghan has missed out on a third Commonwealth Games medal after he was forced to go for broke in the pommel horse final in Glasgow.
The Olympic champion was second last of eight gymnasts to go in the final at the Glasgow International Arena and had to up the level of difficulty of his routine after witnessing the quality of performances from the two Scots, Reuben Ward and Cameron Lynn, and Canada’s Jordan Carroll, who seized first position with a superb score of 15.000.
McClenaghan, who was third in qualifying, got off to a brilliant start with a superb mount, but the wheels came off threequarters of the way through his routine, with leg separation costing him dearly as he made a crucial error.
Although he successfully battled to hold on, the 27-year-old looked disappointed following his dismount and scored just 13.000, which left him outside the medals.
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He received 5.2 for difficulty and 7.8 for execution, a long way off the magnificent 15.533 he so memorably achieved in the Paris Olympics.
McClenaghan’s score contrasted sharply with the performance of Carroll, who, despite watching Australia’s Jesse Moore come off the horse in the opening routine, took on an extremely difficult routine of his own and executed it brilliantly to score 15.000 points - nine for execution and six for difficulty.
Carroll’s effort was followed by the medal-winning performances of Ward, who had already won gold in the all-around and came agonisingly close to winning again with a personal best score of 14.996, and Lynn, who managed 13.833 to finish in third, adding to the bronze he won in Birmingham four years ago.
Cyprus’ Marios Georgiou scored 13.100 and McClenaghan – a three-time World and European Championship winner – went all out to surpass them all, but ultimately could not pull off the high difficulty required in his third Commonwealth Games.
Australia’s Ritam Mallik, who went last, produced a solid routine that scored 13.33 and that pushed McClenaghan into sixth.
It later emerged that McClenaghan appealed his score, but to no avail.
“I didn’t have a great start,” he told BBC Sport NI. “They didn’t count the first skill so that dismantled the whole routine. I tried to push through the rest of the routine and it was going well until the end and the leg splits happened.
“If I had have went start to finish, if that first skill had been counted, and to the untrained eye, it is probably nothing, but the judges don’t like to see that.”
McClenaghan had craved gold in Glasgow after finishing second behind England’s Joe Fraser in Birmingham and first on the Gold Coast in 2018.
This was his first major international appearance since undergoing shoulder surgery two years ago and, with the arena in full celebratory mode for the two Scots who made the podium, the experience is certain to fuel the Newtownards gymnast for the European Championships in Zagreb next month.
Northern Ireland remain on two medals at the Games, with swimmer Daniel Wiffen hoping to add another in the 800m freestyle final later this evening after finishing fifth in the 400m freestyle on Monday.
“It was unfortunate,” said Tokyo Olympics gold medal winner Max Whitlock, who missed these Games through injury, on McClenaghan missing out on a medal.
“It’s tough going up when there is 15 on the board, as it means that you have to produce a very difficult routine, so it’s almost gold or nothing at that point.
“His routine was very difficult but it wasn’t clean enough. You need to remember he has had a year out with a shoulder injury and he hasn’t been in great form since his routine, so this was a tough task for him. The margins are so small on pommel horse.”
