Disability | Scottish Success at 2023 British Championships
Gymnasts representing City of Glasgow, West Lothian and North East won a glittering total of 12 all-around medals at the 2023 Disability British Championships which were held on Sunday 1 October at Lilleshall National Sports Centre.
As well as all-around champion titles, several individual apparatus titles were up for contention across the three levels in each mens and womens artistic competitions.
In disability gymnastics, the categories are determined by the classification of disability, and work to the disability artistic rules created using an adapted version of the code of points. In class one, for those with learning disabilities, there was great success for the gymnasts representing Scottish clubs. Starting from the highest level in class 1:
Megan Docherty (West Lothian) | Open – women’s senior
Silver: all-around, vault
Bronze: floor, bars & beam
Sophie Barnett (West Lothian) | Open – women’s junior
Silver: all-around, vault
Bronze: bars
Craig McGarrity (City of Glasgow) | Open – men’s senior
Gold: pommel
Bronze: all-around, floor & vault
Holly Lench (City of Glasgow) | Competition A – women’s senior
Gold: vault & beam
Bronze: all-around, floor & bars
Emma Thomson (City of Glasgow) | Competition A, Class 1 – women’s senior
Gold: floor
Silver: all-around & bars
Bronze: beam
Layla Taylor who competes for North East attended the competition for the first time, narrowly missing out on a medal on bars in the Open – senior womens category. Rachel Thomson from City of Glasgow also just missed out on medals in Competition A – womens senior with her routines on beam and floor.
From City of Glasgow, Emily McAlpine became the new Competition B – womens senior champion with training partner Chiara Astley taking second place in the all-around. Cara Mccall and Carol Ball, both also representing City of Glasgow took home an apparatus medal each in the same category.
City of Glasgow teammates Poppy Mccall and Ella Morton competed in Competition B – womens junior category, with Poppy winning third in the all-around and winning individual apparatus medals on all 4 pieces. Ella retained her bars champion title along with becoming the new floor champion and taking home three more medals in this category.
The Competition B, – mens senior category was flooded with successful routines from City of Glasgow gymnasts. Jack Bothwell was crowned the all-around and rings champion with veteran Andrew Macintyre retaining his parallel bars title. Both men also brought home medals for other individual apparatus. In the junior category of this level Connor Deafley collected individual medals on five out of the six pieces, earning him silver all-around.
The second classification group gymnasts can be placed into is for those that are impacted by a physical and sensory impairment. Six Scots claimed a haul of medals in their competitions in this classification group.
Monica Fisher (City of Glasgow) | Competition B – womens senior
Gold: all-around, floor vault & beam
Bronze: bars
Harley Davis (City of Glasgow) | Competition B – mens junior
Gold: all-around, parallel bars & floor
Silver: rings, pommel & high bar
Bronze: vault
Competing alongside Harley was teammate Zachary Wood who claimed silver all-around and floor bronze medal positions.
The floor bronze medal position for Competition B – womens junior ended in a City of Glasgow teammate tie between Sophie Ireland and Iona Timmons. Also competing in this category from the same club was Zara Coote, who brought home the champion title for bars in her British Championships debut.
Congratulations to all of the gymnasts and to their coaches and clubs on their success.
Find the full results on British Gymnastics and learn more about disability gymnastics through our members area.