Artistic | Scots Shine at British Championships
Scottish artistic gymnasts secured a total of 12 medals at the 2022 British Championships at the M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool from 24-27 March.
The medal haul included an all-around championship title in the men’s under 18 category and apparatus medals including successes for our disability gymnasts in the apparatus masters competition.
It was an exciting four days of competition, returning for the first time in three years with Saturday’s hotly anticipated senior all-around including some key names from the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games GB team returning to the competition floor and vying for a home medal.
Half of the medals won by Scots at the British Championships came from day one’s disability masters competition, with gymnasts who qualified at last year’s Disability British Championships returning to compete in apparatus masters finals. There was a gold for City of Glasgow gymnast Craig McGarrity in the men’s pommel, as well as another for West Lothian’s Megan Docherty in the women’s vault.
Megan continued her successful competition, with a silver in the beam. City of Glasgow’s Alistair Kemley picked up three bronze medals, across pommel, parallel bars and horizontal bar.
In the men’s under 16 competition, the newly crowned Scottish under-16 champion, Luca Robinson, who trains with City of Newcastle finished eighth in the all-around with an overall score of 72.198 and a fantastic floor routine securing him the silver medal on this piece of apparatus.
On day two of the competition, gymnasts in the junior women’s and men’s under 14 competitions were next to take to the floor.
Fresh from their success at the Scottish Championships, City of Glasgow’s Ava MacFarlane and Dynamic’s Milli De O’Hara competed in the junior women’s competition – facing tough competition on the day. Ava finished the all-around in 26th place, with a 12th place finish on the floor. Milli performed well, with a 15th place finish in vault, and a 30th place overall. Both gymnasts will take this opportunity to compete in the junior category for the first time as a way to look ahead and build their skills for the future.
Seven gymnasts represented Scottish clubs in the men’s under 14 competition, where apparatus medals were also presented as part of the all-around. Congratulations to West Lothian’s Logan Kerr who won gold in the parallel bars with a score of 12.533 and finished the all-around in 26th place.
Scottish Men’s Under 18 all-around champion, Reuben Ward, who trains with Manchester Academy of Gymnastics continued a winning streak on Saturday morning. With top ten placings on all pieces of apparatus, and particularly strong scores on vault and pommel, Reuben won gold in the all-around with a score of 77.850. He went on to claim a second gold medal in the pommel final on Sunday.
Gold Coast 2018 gymnast, and current Scottish senior women’s champion, Shannon Archer from South Essex Gymnastics Club had a strong day in the all-around, finishing in seventh place overall with a score of 50.650 as well as qualifying for three out of four apparatus finals.
Dynamic’s Ellie Patrick finished in 12th place, with former three-time Scottish champion and two-time Commonwealth Games gymnast Cara Kennedy (City of Glasgow) ending the day in 19th.
In the senior men’s competition – West Lothian’s Cameron Lynn finished in a strong sixth place, with a score of 79.500. Gold Coast 2018 team member, David Weir (City of Glasgow) finished in eighth, with current Scottish senior men’s champion Pavel Karnejenko (City of Glasgow) finishing his all-around in 11th.
In the senior women’s apparatus finals, Shannon Archer finished fifth on floor behind Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games gymnast Alice Kinsella. Shannon also competed in the beam and vault finals, finishing in eighth and sixth respectively. Cara Kennedy competed alongside Shannon in the vault final where she finished just outside the medals in fourth place.
In the senior men’s apparatus finals, it was a medal winning second day for Pavel Karnejenko who won silver on rings with 14.033, just 0.533 behind gold medallist Courtney Tulloch, and bronze on the horizontal bar. Cameron Lynn was 0.133 points behind him on the bar, and also finished fourth on vault and eighth on the floor.
David Weir was also hoping for a medal, after qualifying in first place for the floor final, but unfortunately his score of 13.633 was only good enough for sixth place. His busy weekend of competition was completed with a seventh place finish on horizontal bar and eighth on vault.
The British Championships acts as a selection event for the upcoming Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games – with many Scottish gymnasts hoping their performances will secure them a nomination to join Team Scotland later this summer. You can view the full results on the British Gymnastics website.
Additional Scottish Results
Men’s Under 16 All-Around
Aaron Convery (Hamilton) 13th
Andrew Dickie (Hamilton) 16th
Kyle Millar (West Lothian) 19th
Lee Gordon (Hamilton) 23rd
Gregor Happs (Lasswade) 27th
Moray Gault (City of Aberdeen) 34th
Men’s Under 18 All-Around
Daniel Sabba (Hamilton) 22nd
Josh Cameron (City of Glasgow) 33rd
Ethan Yates (City of Glasgow) 35th
Tom Beattie (Hamilton) 36th
Men’s Under 14 All-Around
Cameron Falconer (West Lothian) 15th
Aaron Gregory (Hamilton) 27th
Caiden-Jay Malone (Hamilton) 29th
Josh Pettigrew (Lasswade) 39th
Oskar Kolodziej (Lasswade) 42nd
Lewis Campbell (City of Glasgow) 50th
Women’s Senior All-Around
Emily Bremner (Dundee 2K) 21st
Eilidh Gorrell (City of Glasgow) 37th
Caitlin Lochhead (Bristol Hawks) joint 42nd
Kirsty Fowler (City of Aberdeen) joint 42nd
Ellie Russell (West Lothian) 55th
Jessica Wright (Dynamic) 61st [IS5]
Men’s Senior All-Around
Kelvin Cham (City of Glasgow) 14th
Euan McLellan (West Lothian) 17th.
Three Scottish gymnasts also competed as guests at the competition:
Fraser Griffiths (Woking) scoring 47.965 across four pieces of apparatus,
Adam Logan (City of Glasgow) – scored 12.516 on his vault (specialist)
Fraser Lynes (City of Glasgow) – scored 11.733 on rings (specialist)