LOUIS Smith and Kristian Thomas savoured the best results of their individual careers as the British duo took gold at the European Championships in Montpellier yesterday, with Becky Downie also claiming a silver medal on the bars.
Smith took the pommel title and Thomas the floor crown, where he put in a fantastic routine under pressure to score a huge 15.166 points and win his first major individual title.
"It's amazing, I'm absolutely over the moon," he said. "I've never won a floor medal at a major championships but I knew the routine I had was consistent and I was in contention. I was so nervous watching the other scores come in, to win gold is incredible."
Smith had won two Olympic medals on pommel horse but never that elusive major championship gold. He was a class above in the final, dismounting perfectly for 15.800. He said. "I was first up and had to stay composed. It was always a bit hit and miss as to whether I could come back and today for me was a trial for myself. I was so nervous, to win gold makes it all worth it."
Reigning champion Downie knew she had the potential to be amongst the medals and her final performance was exemplary, earning her 15.233 for silver. Competing alongside her was her younger sister Ellie who was fourth and later returned to finish fifth in the women's vault final, with Claudia Fragapane sixth.
On rings, Courtney Tulloch finished eighth.
Today, Thomas will feature in the vault final and the high bar, where he will be joined by Sam Oldham, while Fragapane and Downie will be on bars, and Amy Tinkler and Fragapane on floor.
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 hereComments are closed on this article