Women’s Best Ever Commonwealth All-Around Finish
Scotland’s Cara Kennedy and Shannon Archer have finished in the top ten in the women’s all-around final at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games.
Cara was competing in her second Games and having trailed her City of Glasgow team mate throughout the competition, the experienced gymnast ended on her strongest piece of apparatus to move up one place and secure ninth place, to equal the best finish for a Scot in the all-around event in Commonwealth gymnastics history.
For Shannon, this was her first Games, having missed out on selection for Glasgow 2014 due to injury and she has worked hard since then to achieve her ambition of competing at the Commonwealth Games. A top ten finish was certainly a hard earned and well-deserved reward for the 19 year-old. Only two other Scots had achieved 10th in this event at the Games.
However, Scotland has never had two gymnasts finish as highly in the same year, meaning Cara and Shannon have now sealed their place among the best women’s artistic gymnasts to have represented their country. This is how they did it.
Rotation One
Alice Kinsellla of England started the women’s all-around on a strong vault of 14.050 before Cara began her campaign on the high bars with a clean routine ending in a double pike dismount which earned her 11.200, a higher score than the previous day.
Shannon was on the vault, and a 5.000 difficulty she flew through it, landing centrally with just a small adjustment on landing due to her pacey flight, and she successfully posted 13.700, a fraction down on her qualifying score.
With the field of 18 split in two groups, each rotation was further split into two with a three-minute warm up before each group. Shannon was in fifth having started on her strongest piece of apparatus, Cara in 10th as they moved on to the next.
Rotation Two
Cara was first on the beam in rotation two. Her opening acrobatic moves and leaps were safe, and she controlled her cartwheel, which had thrown her in qualification, and continued steadily, finishing neatly to post 11.950.
Shannon’s high bar was next. The Scots had all stuck to shorter routines in qualifying and again, like Cara, she stayed with this option of missing one harder release and catch element, to add 11.000 to the bag.
At the half way point, Shannon’s 24.700 put her in ninth with Cara one place behind on 23.150. As expected, the Canadian and English gymnasts were leading the way, having come first and second respectively in the team event. Gold medal winner Elsabeth Black on 27.900 was 0.250 ahead of British all-around champion, Kelly Simm.
Rotation Three
It was Black who kicked off rotation three, on the beam, but an overbalance led to an unexpected dismount and restart, potentially opening the door to Simm.
Shannon then took her place on the beam with her usual elegance, and she controlled her leap series and jumps well. Moving confidently through her cartwheel and along the beam, and with a double twist dismount, she landed a good clean routine to earn 12.050, which, like Cara, was a significant improvement on her qualification score.
It was Cara’s turn on the floor, and her first tumbles were well controlled. She kept her confident performance and beaming smile throughout her routine. It was really smashing effort from the City of Glasgow gymnast and a joy to watch, and she deserved every one of her 12.300 points with a better executed routine than a day earlier.
With one piece of apparatus left, our two Team Scotland gymnasts remained in ninth and 10th, Shannon on 36.750, Cara on 35.450. While they were maintaining their positions, a slip up from Simm on the beam cost her dearly as she slipped to sixth, allowing Australia’s Georgia Godwin to move up into second place, just a fraction behind Black who controlled the lead heading into the final showdown with England’s Kinsella third.
Rotation Four
Shannon opened the final rotation with her elegant floor routine which always entertains with her mix of artistry and skill to the evocative sound of Bridge over Troubled Water. A haunting track, a memorable routine, and she finished her campaign with a solid 12.100 for a total of 48.850. The City of Glasgow gymnast could only sit and wait to see where she would finish in the overall competition.
Godwin followed on the floor, earning 13.100 and the home nation’s gymnast finished on 53.800 to put pressure on Black from Canada.
We awaited Cara who was second last to go on the vault, which had earned her 13.550 in qualifying, the same score as her team mate. And she nailed it, for a whopping 13.700 – the same as Shannon yet again – and smiles all round as she finished on 49.150 and it was enough to move ahead of Shannon. They finished in an impressive ninth and 10th place.
The standings at the top of the table remained the same, with a floor score of 13.450 sealing the gold medal for Elsabeth Black of Canada (54.200), silver for Australia’s Georgia Godwin (53.800) with Alice Kinsella winning bronze for England (53.150). The remaining top eight places were filled by the other Canadian, Australian and English gymnasts, and the Welsh pairing of Latalia Bevan and Maisie Maisie Methuen.
The previous best finish for a Scot in the women’s Commonwealth Games all-around was ninth by Helen Galashan in Manchester 2002. Her twin Carol was 10th in the following Games, which was matched by Emma White in Glasgow 2014.
Cara and Shannon’s performances have put them right up there with Scotland’s best in the history of the Commonwealth Games, and they have done themselves and their families, their club and coach Sandra Stevenson, and their country proud. We can now look forward to seeing them in the vault final on Sunday at 6.27am (BST).
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