Birmingham 2022 | Women’s All-Around
Shannon Archer and Cara Kennedy were the second pair of Scottish gymnasts to return to the competition in Birmingham today, competing in the individual all-around final.
The final involved 18 gymnasts and although the other two Scots, Emily Bremner and Eilidh Gorrell, also finished day one’s qualifier in that bracket, a maximum of two from each country can make it to the all-around final. It was a tough task for the women competing in the all-around on day two, as the final started a mere 17 hours after the qualifying event.
Shannon built on some great scores from qualification to finish in eighth place – the highest ever position for a Scottish women’s artistic gymnast in the Commonwealth Games all-around final. Cara also performed well to end her competition in fourteenth place.
Cara, in her third senior Games, started the session on uneven bars. She completes her routine with composure – scoring 11.450 thanks to a great start on the high bar, with a salto transition to low bar. She lifts into a full pirouette on the high bar and completes her routine with a double tuck back somersault. It’s a good start and the highest score for Cara on this piece of apparatus in this code of points cycle.
Shannon, a previous finalist at Gold Coast 2018, and two-time Team Scotland gymnast started her all-around campaign on her top piece, vault, alongside the top eight performers from the qualification round. Her score in qualification was 13.900 and it’s another brilliant start to her campaign with a 13.700. She set off with power, performing a double twisting Yurchenko – a higher difficulty vault than anyone else so far – landing with her feet slightly apart, meaning she needs a hop to correct.
Shannon then moves to the uneven bars, preparing herself and lifting up strong into her first handstand. She transitions well and swings up to handstand with a slight lean. She tries to make it back to high bar but comes off. Once she is back on she winds up to handstand for a jaeger somersault and then a full pirouette – ending with a full twisting double somersault and a score of 11.40.
Cara’s second piece is the beam, hoping to match her score from yesterday which followed a unique and well executed routine. She starts off with some lovely split leaps She takes an unfortunate fall but the rest of her routine is full of poise and she ends with a round off to a full twisting dismount. It's 10.85 for this rotation.
Shannon has a very good routine on beam, with a fabulous split leg leap to start and clean lines throughout. She performs an impressive double twist early on followed by a set of well controlled leaps. Her back walkover combination is exciting, and she dismounts with a sensational round off two and a half twisting somersault – she scores 12.700.
Cara gets the audience support for the first tumble in her floor routine – a fantastically performed double layout – sticking the landing. Her punch front to one and a half is just as good as in qualification and she continues with a slick routine including a great double back – giving her 12.20 just 0.05 behind yesterday’s score.
In the final rotation of the day – Shannon must wait until the second half to compete on the floor. Her routine is absolutely packed with difficult tumbles, and she stays strong throughout her routine. With an early triple twist, she lines up for a punch front to double twisting somersault but falls back on landing. She completes her routine with a series of lovely leaps and scores 11.500.
Cara is one of the final competitors on the vault as part of the second group of qualifiers. She performs and tight two and a half twisting Yurchenko but misjudges her landing and lands low, falling backwards. It’s a final score for her of 12.2.
The individual all-around final is closed off with a floor routine by Olympic team bronze medalist and home crowd favourite, Alice Kinsella. After the crowd cheers fade, we know who has claimed victory in the competition. Australia’s Georgia Goodwin takes the top spot with her score of 53.550. Ondine Achampong (England) picks up silver thanks to her score of 53.000 and Emma Spence (Canada) claims bronze with 52.30.
Kinsella finishes in fourth place with 50.600 with Welsh gymnast Poppy-Grace Stickler chasing her with a final score of 50.200. Although Shannon’s overall score of 49.300 is just shy of what she achieved in qualifying, she finished within the top ten.
Shannon said: “For me, there were some positives to take away from today, some mistakes as well, but some positives like I got my score on beam which I made a mistake on yesterday and nailed my vault again which has given me confidence going into the final tomorrow. I’m very happy that I managed to bump up a couple of places from the last games. The atmosphere in that arena is mega – I think every home nation has had the support with cheers before and after routines.”
Cara said: “It was really good to improve on yesterday. It’s quite tough doing competitions back-to-back so it’s been good to deliver some good routines. It’s been brilliant, the crowd has been amazing. I’m looking forward to getting back out there and competing my vault final.”
We will see both Shannon and Cara back on the competition floor tomorrow for the vault final – a repeat of the 2018 Gold Coast Games with Shannon also making a return for uneven bars in the evening.
> Missed any of the competition? You can catch up on BBC iPlayer
Read more about Team Scotland's Games:
> Birmingham 2022 | Women's Artistic Day One
> Birmingham 2022 | Men's Artistic Day One
> Birmingham 2022 | Men's All-Around
> How to watch, share and get involved
> Find out more about the team
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