Rhys McClenaghan looks forward and says Commonwealth Games are a ‘training day’
Northern Ireland's Olympic gymnastics champion Rhys McClenaghan dismissed the Commonwealth Games as a “training day” after failing to win a medal in the men’s pommel final at the Glasgow International Centre.
The 27-year-old scored 13.0 points to finish in sixth place, well below gold medallist Jordan Carroll of Canada, with two Scots – all-around champion Reuben Ward and his team-mate Cameron Lynn – taking silver and bronze respectively.
McClenaghan shrugged off the loss, which he blamed on a minor error on a new mount at the start of his routine, and said he would immediately shift focus to the upcoming European and world championships.
“This is a training day for me, so we go back to the gym as soon as I can, and we tackle it just like we tackle any training day,” said McClenaghan, a double world champion who claimed gold at the Paris 2024 Olympics after falling in the final in Tokyo. “Even if I had won gold here it still would have been treated as a stepping-stone. We go back to the gym as soon as we can, and we tackle it just like we tackle any training day. We’ve got our eye on the prize for the Europeans.”
Ward, who had qualified for the final in first place, held his nerve to take silver but seemed more delighted to be able to share the podium experience with Lynn, who had not been expected to trouble the top three.
“Scotland is a force to be reckoned with in gymnastics and we are starting to prove that,” said Ward, who claimed Scotland’s first all-around title on Friday. “I began it the other day and we are snowballing now.”