Rhys McClenaghan lifts European pommel horse gold with Olympic Games next test

Having won the prize last year in Turkey, McClenaghan added to his Ireland medal haul with a winning score of 15.300 to come home first over the Netherlands’ Loran de Munck (14.933) and Cyprus’ Marios Georgiou (14.800).

The impressive Rimini display marked a memorable final outing before turning focus to this summer’s Olympic Games in Paris.

The 24-year-old has now won European gold on three occasions in the discipline, with two successive triumphs following on from his 2018 victory across the Glasgow-hosted tournament.

McClenaghan’s personal collection also includes two World Championships and, with Northern Ireland, a Commonwealth Games gold.

“Very proud moment, triple European Champion,” said the squad’s national coach, Luke Carson, on the official Gymnastics Ireland website. “The goal was to come here and showcase Olympic-level gymnastics, that was certainly achieved.

"Now we recoup, re-energize and work towards final improvements for Olympic Games."

Gymnastics Ireland performance and technical manager Sally Johnson highlighted the “smooth clean performance by Rhys, very professional and well-composed securing his title and preparation for the Paris Olympics” plus added "congratulations to his coach Luke and to his club, thank you to all our support team in the Sport Ireland and Sport NI”.

Gymnastics Ireland CEO Ciaran Gallagher said: “A third European title to add to his collection - absolutely superb performance yet again from Rhys as the countdown to Paris 2024 continues.

"Huge congratulations to Rhys and our national coach Luke Carson on another historic result.

"Thanks also to Sport Ireland for their continued support of our Performance programme.”