The mood was one of optimism among the British gymnastics camp after a successful weekend at the Glasgow Grand Prix. Britain took two gold medals in the women's competition and a silver and bronze in the men's events.
Marissa King won the vault competition in the Kelvin Hall, taking her first ever gold medal at World Cup level. King, 16, from Huntingdon, is the current British champion and has exploded onto the international scene in the past 12 months.
Beth Tweddle took gold on the floor, storming ahead of the rest of the field. However, it was a day of marked highs and lows for the 22-year-old star of the British team. Earlier she had performed a near flawless A-bars routine only to fluff her final element and lose momentum. On dismount, Tweddle then fell forward, putting her hands on the floor and dropping out of medal contention.
Later, she was philosophical, shrugging off the disappointment. "Up until the last skill it was one of the better routines I'd done," she said. "If I want to get gold in Beijing next year I need to have everything perfect, so I tried out that skill. It didn't quite come off and when I tried to fix it, it all went a bit wrong. It's just one of those things. You can't always be on top. I'll go home to the gym and work on it for next year.
"I'm hoping, however, that people are starting to realise there is more to me that just A-bars. I am a floor worker and an all-around gymnast, too. I don't want to be known as a one-trick pony."
Tweddle and King will now be looking ahead to later this month, when the British women's team fly out to China for the Olympic test event, billed as a dress rehearsal ahead of next summer's games. Both will be hoping to impress and claim one of the six places in the Olympic squad. The selection criteria for the team is as yet undisclosed, but it's believed that the top all-around gymnasts will be chosen first, followed by a handful of individual apparatus specialists.
In the men's competition, Britain's Louis Smith took silver on the pommel horse and Kristian Thomas bronze on the floor. It is a result which will provide a much needed boost for their Olympic hopes. The British men have qualified for two places at the 2008 Games and competition for both spots will be fierce.
The Glasgow Grand Prix saw Britain and Romania finish joint top in the medal stakes with two golds, a silver and bronze apiece.
In the men's floor event, Tomas Gonzalez Sepulveda (Chile) emerged as a rising star with a impressive routine which saw him win his country's first ever gold medal at world level.
"In Chile, not many people practise gymnastics," he said. "Football is our big sport. I am the first person in my country to win a gold medal in World Cup gymnastics. I am the pioneer. It is very good and I am excited to have won."
On pommel horse Daniel Popescu (Romania) finished in first place, while Yuri Van Gelder (Netherlands) and Du Wei (China) took the top spots on rings and vault respectively. On parallel bars Mitja Petkovsek (Slovenia), a twice world champion on this apparatus, showed he is still the master to win gold.
In a fiercely fought high bar competition Epke Zonderland (Netherlands) saw off Robert Weber (Germany) and Brian Gladow Germany) to claim victory. In the women's competition Steliana Nistor (Romania) took gold on A-bars, pipping the current European champion, Dariya Zgoba (Ukraine). Tweddle finished down in seventh.
On beam, veteran Russian star Lyudmila Grebenkova, returning from her recent hiatus to get married, showed she's still got what it takes, performing a blistering routine to finish on top.
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