ORGANISERS have hailed the 2015 World Gymnastics Championships in Glasgow as setting “a new benchmark” for the event.
Jane Allen, chief executive of British Gymnastics, said she believed that the goal to make this “one of the best world championships” in history had been achieved.
“Our aim was to try and engage the fans,” she said. “The fans are young and they have different ways of enjoying events these days. It was our real goal to try and engage them in the way they want to be engaged.
“I believe we have delivered an event that has taken gymnastics into a new era. We have shown that you can come to a gymnastics event and be entertained.
“We hope that the standards set here will be a new benchmark.”
It was a sentiment echoed by president of the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG), Bruno Grandi, who said that the championships in Glasgow had been “super on every level”.
Five-time Olympic and world champion Nellie Kim, who is the FIG women's technical committee president, described it as “one of the best world championships of my life”.
On Saturday, Max Whitlock ended a 112-year wait to make history by becoming the first man from Great Britain to win gold at the World Gymnastics Championships, claiming victory on the pommel horse at the SSE Hydro.
His team-mate Louis Smith took silver, while Whitlock also won a silver medal on floor.
This gives Great Britain a total of five medals including silver for the men’s team and bronze for the women last week, making it their most successful World Gymnastics Championships to date.
The record breaking event has welcomed 594 competitors from 87 countries – the most high-profile sporting extravaganza to be held in Scotland since the Commonwealth Games and Ryder Cup last year.
More than 55,000 tickets have been snapped up with the women's individual all-around final last Thursday evening sold out seeing 6,500 people packed into the arena.
According to organisers, the 10-day sporting event is projected to generate at least £5 million for the Scottish economy.
It is estimated that at least 20,000 hotel bed-nights have been booked across the city.
The 2015 World Gymnastics Championships took the spectator experience to dizzying new heights with gymnasts entering the arena accompanied by billowing fire and thumping music.
In a world first for the event, premium floor seating allowed 400 fans each day to come eye-to-eye with their sporting idols as the action unfolded.
Great Britain’s most decorated gymnast three-time world champion Beth Tweddle said that the event had received high praise among gymnasts, coaches and sports fans alike.
“From a spectator’s point of view, it has been fantastic,” she said. “I have loved every minute of it. British Gymnastics has had an amazing World Championships and it will be one they won’t forget.”
Tweddle added that the electric atmosphere in the SSE Hydro also played its part.
“Scottish crowds are always good,” she said. “They are there to support the home nation, but they support everyone and you can see they appreciate the work of the gymnasts. They are crazy crowds, but gymnasts love it.
“The girls have said that they feel like they are performing for the audience rather than the judges which, for them, is great. The whole presentation, they really felt like they were centre stage.”
Gymnastics has been confirmed to return to the SSE Hydro as part of the inaugural European Sports Championships in 2018.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel