BARRY gymnast Clinton Purnell won bronze in the Men’s Artistic Masters Apparatus Final at the British Gymnastics Championships last week.

Clinton, captain of the men’s team, came third in the vault competition, in a repeat of what he achieved at the British Championships in 2012.

He also beat Team GB’s London 2012 squad member Daniel Purvis to the medal in the process.

Barry YMCA gymnast Clinton, the 2013 Men’s Artistic Welsh Champion, came sixth in the rings final and finished in eighth place in Saturdays all-around competition.

During the competition, which was held at the Echo Arena in Liverpool Welsh gymnasts brought home five medals – one gold, two silver and two bronze medals across the Espoir, Senior Men’s and Women’s British Championships Apparatus Finals.

Welsh Gymnastics technical director Andrew Morris, who was at the championships, said: “Clinton performed really well to qualify for the rings and vault finals.

Coming eighth in the allaround is an improvement on last year’s British – if he had a cleaner competition and scored as well as he did in the Welsh Championships in February, he would have been close to an all-around medal.

“He was chuffed to pick up the bronze medal and repeated his achievement of last year; however, I believe he was unlucky not to be awarded the silver this time.

Looking ahead to the Commonwealth Games in 2014 it’s time to unleash some of his bigger vaults and go for gold in Glasgow.”

In the under 12 Espoir category Maisie Methuen, competing for Phoenix Gymnastics Club, won gold in the vault final, which was followed by a silver medal on beam. Team-mate Latalia Bevan finished in seventh in the uneven bars final.

“Maisie and Latalia in the Espoir’s looked really impressive, they’re the next generation, eligible for the Commonwealth Games in Australia in 2018, they are beautiful looking performers, well prepared and confident beyond their years,”

added Andrew.

Penarth gymnast Angel Romaeo also came fifth in the Senior Women’s Artistic floor final at the British Gymnastics Championships which was a distinctively Welsh affair with Cardiff Central’s Raer Theaker, Angel Romaeo, Jess Hogg and Park Wrekin’s Georgina Hockenhull all competing.

Raer Theaker, who is in her first competitive senior year, won silver in the floor final putting English gymnast Niamh Rippin, into third place. 2012 Northern European gold medallist Angel Romaeo and Jess Hogg finished in fifth and sixth place.

Georgina, who is the current Welsh Senior Women’s Artistic Champion and also a first year senior, picked up a bronze medal in the beam final and finished fourth place on uneven bars.

Georgina and Raer finished fifth and sixth respectively in the all-around competition.

“Seeing four Welsh representatives in the women’s floor final was great, credit must be given not only to the performance coaches but to the fine choreography taught by Welsh Gymnastics’ choreographer Ioana Popova.

“Raer competed very well, she has very strong tumbles on floor which delivered a high start value.

“This linked with lovely choreography won her the silver medal.

“Georgina’s beam performance was also really strong, confident, and becoming very consistent,”

said Andrew.