McClenaghan chasing European gold in Turkey

World champion Rhys McClenaghan will attempt to add another European gold medal to his collection as he competes in the 2023 European Artistic Gymnastics Championships pommel horse final on Saturday.

The Newtownards native qualified in first place for the final in Antalya, Turkey, which will be shown live on the RTÉ News channel and RTÉ Player.

McClenaghan scored 14.966 in qualifying, a few minor errors knocking his total down, and is one of the heavyweights for the final, expected to take place between 12.10pm and 1.10pm.

Loran De Munck from the Netherlands, silver medallist in the 2022 European games, will likely provide the stiffest competition to McClenaghan.

Matvei Petrov, the Russian who claimed gold in the 2020 competition, was third in qualifying with his difficulty score (6.2) much lower than McClenaghan (6.4) and De Munck (6.5).

Of the other finalists, Italy’s Yumin Abbadini and Armenia’s Artur Davtyan both matched the Irishman on the execution side of their routine with their difficulty rating seeing them finish further down the ranks.

McClenaghan last claimed European gold in 2018 when he held off Croatia’s Robert Seligman and Slovenia’s Sašo Bertoncelj in Glasgow – becoming the first Irish gymnast to win a European medal in the process.

His career has taken off since then with the highlight undoubtedly being last year’s World title, although that Olympic gold still eludes him – for now at least.