It’s that time of year again, when the best gymnasts from all across Europe come together to dispute who is the best individual gymnast right at this moment.
We now take a look at the British team. They have enjoyed success from last years Europeans where both their junior and senior teams picked up team silver medals. So in 2014, no British gymnast went home empty handed; however with this year’s competition being a non-team event, can they match or better their performance from last year?
Our first and most experienced gymnast, Becky Downie, is going into Montpellier as the defending champion on the uneven bars. Becky’s 2014 surely was a rollercoaster of emotions, winning the European title on bars, winning the Commonwealth title on bars and placing fifth on bars at the World championships.
But so far, Becky has had a rough start to the 2015 season and very recently had a tough time at the British Championships where her performances in the all-around competition (where she only competed bars and beam) did not go as planned. Becky had to withdraw from the event finals. A few weeks on from that can Becky defend her European title? There is nothing there that could prevent her from doing that.
WATCH: Becky Downie’s gold medal winning pbar routine at the 2014 European Championships:
The next gymnast on the list is Claudia Fragapane, a name which many would have gotten to know by now. The events in which Claudia stands out on are on the power events, vault and floor to be exact. The Commonwealth gold medalist, can certainly medal on either of these events.
She competes two vaults, a Yurchenko double twist and a half-on layout half off, two vaults which she is reasonably consistent on. Floor is her standout event where her routine has the potential to score as high as a 16.4 if all goes as planned.
Claudia has had difficulties maintaining her consistency across the four events, but without mistakes she is also a medal contender in the all-around.
WATCH: Claudia performs her new floor routine at the recent British Championships:
We now move onto the new seniors who will be looking into making a name for themselves by the time this competition is over, one of which is Amy Tinkler who recently won the all- around crown at the British championships.
Like Fragapane, Amy is a powerful gymnast with a great variety of skills. Her best event is floor where she competes a full twisting double layout, a skill that is new for her. Amy also excels on vault where she competes a Yurchenko double full but I wouldn’t expect her to be going for the vault final this time around. Amy also has great skills on bars and beam. Although they’re not her strongest events she can certainly use her skill set to boost up her scores, such as her triple twist dismount on beam.
Also keep an eye on her in the all-around where she could potentially challenge for a medal.
WATCH: Amy Tinkler competes on beam at the British championships:
And last and not least, we take a look at Ellie Downie (and yes she’s Becky’s younger sister, in case you didn’t know already). Ellie has already made quite a name for herself on the junior level, winning bronze medals in the all-around competitions at last years junior European championships and the Youth Olympic Games last summer.
Ellie is also the junior European champion on vault from last year and the year before at the European Youth Olympic Festival. She also won the silver medal on this event at the Youth Olympics.
Vault is certainly the event where Ellie will be looking at winning some well-earned hardware for her trophy case. Ellie competes a very clean Yurchenko double full and has either competed a half on, pike half out or the same vault but in a layout position. Ellie also takes after her sister on bars where she displays a great and natural swing, and also has big skills on beam and floor where she performs a double arabian dismount on beam and a piked double arabian on floor. She has also competed tumbles such as a double layout and a 1.5 to a tucked double arabian in the past.
WATCH: Ellie Downie performs her second vault at the British championships:
Article by: Craig Tilley
Photo Cover: Myrian Cawston