Artistic | Nine Scottish Medals in Liverpool
Scottish artistic gymnasts won a total of nine medals at the 2023 British Championships at the M&S Bank Exhibition Centre in Liverpool from 16 to 19 March.
The medal haul included a brilliant senior all-around championship bronze and apparatus medals for some familiar faces including success for disability gymnasts in the apparatus masters competition.
Day one of the competition saw two apparatus medals return to Scotland with Aaron Convery from Hamilton winning the championship title on pommel horse, and West Lothian’s Gregor Happs taking second place on parallel bars. The medals were decided as part of the all-around competition which saw Happs and clubmate Kyle Millar finish within the top ten of the Men’s Under 16 category.
Megan Docherty from West Lothian won two individual apparatus masters medals in the senior women’s disability competition on day two, taking home silver on beam, and bronze on floor. She will return to the Disability British Championships later in the year to compete for an all-around title.
Gymnasts in the junior women’s competition also took to the arena for their competition, with Ava MacFarlane (City of Glasgow) and Katie Ferries (City of Aberdeen) both securing a place in an individual apparatus final on Sunday. Ava went on to follow her medal winning performance at last year’s Northern European Championships by winning silver on beam.
Fresh from two back-to-back international appearances for GB and winning his second consecutive Scottish national championship title in February, Pavel Karnejenko built on last year’s 11th place finish, gaining 4.8 marks on his total and this year taking a podium spot and the bronze medal with a score of 81.400. He returned for four out of six apparatus finals on the last day of competition – matching his silver medal performance on rings.
Cameron Lynn, who has also recently competed at the DtB Pokal Team Challenge in Stuttgart alongside Pavel had a strong competition, finishing in tenth place for all-around and qualified for half of the apparatus finals.
There were strong performances from two Scots in the men’s under 18 competition, with current Scottish Champion Reuben Ward (Manchester Academy) winning bronze and securing the highest score of the day on parallel bars. Portsmouth’s Connor Sullivan finished the day in ninth place, with both gymnasts joined by Ethan Yates from City of Glasgow in Sunday’s apparatus finals. Connor won bronze for his powerful vaults and a score of 13.550 – a great first outing in this age group.
Congratulations to the gymnasts who qualified to compete at this year’s British Championships. You can access full results on the British Gymnastics website, or via the BG Score app.