Scotland's male gymnasts are in line to reach a string of finals when they compete in the North European Cham-pionships at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow today.
The competition represents the first opportunity for gymnastics lovers to see the state-of-the-art facilities in which Scotland will compete at the Commonwealth Games in 2014, but according to head coach Jim Holt, they will also see a Scotland team that has the potential to make a huge impact at the event.
Holt believes he has a team who will be what he describes as "the poster boys" for Glasgow 2014 and with their two established Great Britain internationals Daniel Keatings and Daniel Purvis unavailable this is the chance for the rest to make an impact on the wider public consciousness.
They get into action this afternoon in the preliminary rounds, aiming to get into tomorrow's finals and the American, who has coached international teams all over the world and has spent the last year since his appointment running the rule over Scotland's talent pool, offered The Herald the low-down on his team for the nine nation event which includes three local boys in Liam Davie, Rob Keys and Douglas Ross.
"Douglas was the Junior Commonwealth Games champion on the vault in 2011 at the Isle of Man. He was fourth at the British nationals too and we all know the quality of British gymnastics at the moment, so we are very hopeful that he will be a strong medal contender," said Holt.
"Liam Davie will go in five events and is probably our strongest competitor overall at this competition.
"Rob Keys is our youngest competitor at 17 who, if he produces as well as he can, particularly in the pommel horse, has a good chance of making the finals."
The others are Ross Soutar, from Aberdeen and Anglo-Scot Tom Barnes, the latest to force his way into the team.
"Ross is our football equivalent of a midfield grafter, a reliable performer in every discipline who will be last on the floor for us and we are hoping he can make event finals," said Holt.
"There is P.C. and there's letting people know what's the truth so I have no problem with saying that he is the hardest worked in our team.
"Tom comes from Rushmoor in England but is Scottish qualified and he is just emerging after having nagging injuries in the last couple of years. He was under the radar because of that but he showed up at the Scottish Nationals in March and really made an impact. We think he has an outside chance of making a final," Holt added.
Team Scotland
* Liam Davie
Age 19
Club City of Glasgow
Competing in Vault, Parallel Bars, High Bar, Floor, Rings
* Ross Soutar
Age 19 Club Beacon Boys
Competing in Vault, Parallel Bars, High Bar, Floor, Pommel Horse, Rings
* Douglas Ross
Age 18 Club City of Glasgow
Competing in Vault, Parallel Bars, Pommel Horse
*Rob Keys
Age 17 Club City of Glasgow
Competing in High Bar, Floor, Pommel Horse, Rings
* Tom Barnes
Age 21 Club Rushmoor
Competing in Vault, Parallel Bars, High Bar, Floor, Pommel Horse, Rings
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