Rhys McClenaghan reflects on a positive end to 2022 and the challenges he faced throughout the year.
IT’S THE FINAL of the men’s pommel horse at the 2022 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships, and the first two contestants have failed to complete their routines.Loran De Munck of the Netherlands is up first, but he makes a premature landing right as he’s coming into his final flurry of combinations. He’s wincing as he tumbles down at the critical moment.
Additionally, he’s working with a newly revamped routine. Those changes were introduced after the European Championships in August, and were prompted by an error that was persistently creeping into his performances. It’s now November, and Rhys is displaying his new suite of skills on a pommel horse that has already dismissed its first two contestants.
“I watched the first guy do his routine. I didn’t analyse it, and I can be susceptible to analysing their routines, but I didn’t analyse too much. So, he fell and the guy before me. There is gymnastics in the McClenaghan gene pool. Rhys’s aunt was a gymnast, and his father Danny dabbled in it when he was in school. Of the two brothers, it was Rhys who showed a flair for the sport as a youngster.“I was teaching myself how to do a back flip on the trampoline at the age of six,” he recalls when asked his earliest memories of being acrobatic. “When Mam and Dad saw that, they were like, ‘This is the sport for this guy.
There have been some aches and pains to suffer through since resuming his full blast of training after his break, but he’s quickly ironing out the creases. When we speak, it is the first day that he has started to fell like a gymnast again. Changing McClenaghan’s routine was a decision that both he and his coach Luke Carson came to together. McClenaghan, who documents his gymnastics career with engaging and well-produced video blogs, pored over all the video footage that was at his disposal, while Carson looked at his performances in competition. The vlogs are a reminder of all the lovely places that McClenaghan has visited with his sport, but at a time like this, they were also a vital resource.
“We’re not just training these 10 skills that make up one routine, and having those set in stone. You want to be able to chop and change those when needed. Say for example, the guy before me in the pommel horse final does a crazy routine and gets an amazing score that would score 15.5, then Luke might come to me and say, ‘Look, add this skill in to put up the difficulty.’
The issue has always been lurking before previous editions of the competition, but the athletes were always permitted to go in the end. There was just two weeks to go before competition when McClenaghan discovered on Twitter that he was free to go to the Commonwealth Games. He might not have realised it at the time, but upon reflection, he accepts that the stress of that fight for eligibility affected his focus. And understandably so.
Ireland Latest News, Ireland Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Conor McGregor in 2022 from 'sex tape' to steroid row and social media spatsFormer two-weight UFC champion Conor McGregor hasn't fight in the last year. But despite that, he has still made plenty of headlines and maintained his position as one of the biggest stars in combat sports.
Read more »
Ken Early: 2022 was the year I impressed myself with how frequently my predictions were wrongMy failure rate was far worse than random chance; it was as though some instinct was leading me unerringly to the exact opposite of the truth
Read more »
22 great movies you might have missed in 2022 | JOE.ieLoads to choose from this evening if you're wanting to catch up on the year's best
Read more »
10 hidden gem shows you might have missed in 2022 | JOE.ie10 hidden gem shows you might have missed in 2022
Read more »
10 hidden gem shows you might have missed in 2022 | JOE.ie10 hidden gem shows you might have missed in 2022
Read more »