Glasgow 2026 | Women’s Artistic Day One
Team Scotland’s women’s artistic gymnasts finished sixth, with two making finals, in their Commonwealth Games debuts.
The gymnasts representing Scotland competed in subdivision three of four in the team final and for individual qualifications. The same format the team at Birmingham faced. Joining them in subdivision three were India, Singapore and fellow home nation Wales.
All four members of this women’s team – Ava MacFarlane, captain Crystelle Lake, Ellee Cheetham and Lottie Smith – made their Commonwealth Games debut today. As a team they finished an overall sixth, matching the Birmingham 2022 team, with a score of 140.85. In the end Australia, Canada and England took to the podium to be presented the gold, silver and bronze medals.
Getting into the swing of things
Scottish national champion Ellee opened for the team as they started on the uneven bars. A slight pause as she performed a toe on shaposhnikova (more commonly known as a shap or Maloney) then into a geinger between the bars as she found her momentum again. Her feet found the mat easily out of the huge double back somersault. Sticking the landing to earn a score of 11.500.
Lottie was up next showing nerves as her hand slipped as she caught her jaeger. Opting to drop off the apparatus and take a fall deduction, she chalked back up, brought the flow back and went clean the rest of the routine. Performing a routine solely on the high bar, Ava showed incredible clean lines. Safe and simple paid off as she scored 8.75 for execution; the highest of the whole day’s competition. Also suffering an error, Crystelle lost momentum as she went shap half turn to high bar then transitioned back to the low bar. Gaining a bonus of 0.2 as she successfully got through the toe on shap into geinger combo that Ellee also performed.
Nervous knocks
A huge change leg mount, valued at D with 0.4 difficulty, landed Crystelle on the beam. An unfortunate slip on her double wolf spin left her sitting on the beam and another small wobble in the double spin but remained on for both. Her round off into a one-and-a-half twist went clean and a stuck landing. Lottie showed strength as she performed an impressive jump to splits mount. Her huge acrobatic series of free cartwheel to flic layout earned her a bonus of 0.2. A fall cost her in her leap series but followed with a unique front somersault from one foot. Then nailing her full twisting dismount closed out her routine strongly, before she gave the camera an “oopsies” face giggling.
Ava also made an entrance with her choice of mount – front walkover to the end of the beam. An overpowered flic to flic layout pulled her off the apparatus in disappointment. She then connected a free cartwheel into a split jump followed by a flic with ease and fluidity. Earning a 0.1 connection bonus, Ellee put out a change leg leap into a split jump half turn. A hesitation in the double wolf spin made her stand up early, causing a fall. Returning to the beam, she performed a second spin with double rotation and a big series of flic, flic to layout for another connection bonus.
Artistry and adrenaline
At the halfway point from the teams in this subdivision alone it stood Wales in first followed by Singapore, Scotland and India. Opening for the team on her favourite piece, Ellee showed her energetic personality over on floor. A huge opening pass – double back somersault with a full twist – got the crowds attention. Errors crept in as she went just out of bounds in her second pass and then fell out early of her triple spin which will have it credited to a double. Excelling with her dance skills, Ava notably performed a double spin with her leg up in the split position within her routine. The difficult spin valued at D, 0.4. Her flexible and intricate choreography kept the audience’s eyes fixed to her as she wrapped up the routine with a double back somersault.
A more dramatic performance came from Lottie with her choice of music. Two of her passes – a double back pike somersault and forward straight front full twist – were overpowered, landing just out of bounds onto the red. Crystelle got the audience clapping along as she went into the first pass of a straight front into a straight front with a double twist earning a bonus. She made the all-important eye contact to the judges, ensuring they were watching and earning artistry marks while doing so – sitting as third reserve to the floor final.
The final hurdle
All four Scot’s performed a single vault to go towards the team and individual all-around qualification scores. This means we will not be seeing any of them in the vault final as two must be performed to be eligible. A short landing from her Yurchenko (backflip entry to the vault) straight full twisting vault impacted Lottie as she dismounted the podium in clear discomfort with her ankle. Over rotating on her Tsukahara (round off entry), pike back somersault, Ava got her feet to the mat and rolled back. Emotions ran high as she embraced the team’s women’s lead coach Grace before joining Lottie in the athlete seating.
The two falls before her didn’t phase Ellee as she performed the same vault as Lottie, going clean to her feet with a look of relief to have made it through her Games debut. Crystelle followed suit in going clean with a Yurchenko, straight one and a half twist, with personal coach Brett also pleased with her final apparatus as she earned 13.050.
Speaking on how the crowd carried them Crystelle commented: “We knew the support was going to be good but we didn’t expect it to this level. It definitely helped pick us up when we had those harder parts during the competition “. With Ellee following up saying: “As soon as I stood on the springboard and heard them shout Team Scotland, it was something I can’t even put into words. The noise was insane.”
Next up
In the all-around competition, Crystelle qualified in thirteenth to Sunday’s women’s all-around final (48.100), with Ellee in nineteenth (46.700).
Sunday 26 July | Individual all-around finals
- Session 1 | men’s – Reuben & Cameron: 12 – 3.30pm
- Session 2 | women’s – Crystelle & Ellee: 6-9pm
Monday 27 July | Apparatus finals day one: 1-5.30pm
- Men’s floor, pommel horse (Reuben & Cameron) & rings
- Women’s vault and uneven bars
Tuesday 28 July | Apparatus finals day two: 1-5.30pm
- Men’s parallel bars (Reuben), high bar (Cameron) & vault
- Women’s balance beam & floor
We look forward to returning to The Arena tomorrow for the all-around competitions – with live coverage on TNT Sports. Click the buttons below to find all the latest news and updates from Glasgow and your nearest club.
Photography credit: Ewan Bootman