Elliot Vernon and Alexander Niscoveanu delivered impressive performances in the Commonwealth Games Men’s All-Around Final, finishing ninth and eleventh respectively against a world-class field in Glasgow.
Competing amongst the very best gymnasts in the Commonwealth, Vernon finished ninth with a score of 76.600, while Niscoveanu placed eleventh on 74.050. Although both gymnasts were left reflecting on a handful of mistakes, they could also take great pride in producing performances that showcased the quality and resilience of Welsh Men’s Artistic Gymnastics on one of the sport’s biggest stages.
Vernon enjoyed a composed start to the competition, producing clean routines on pommel horse, rings and vault. An unfortunate and uncharacteristic fall on parallel bars threatened to derail his challenge, but the Welshman responded superbly, bouncing back with an excellent high bar routine before finishing strongly on floor.
Among the highlights of Vernon’s competition were a stuck rings dismount and a superbly landed triple back dismount from high bar, with the high bar and rings routines standing out as the performances he was most proud of.
Niscoveanu also showed tremendous resilience throughout the final. After an early fall on pommel horse, he regrouped impressively to deliver a strong rings routine before continuing with a solid vault performance. Despite a difficult parallel bars routine, he finished the competition in style, producing an outstanding high bar routine, his personal highlight of the day, before closing with a strong floor exercise.
The support from the Welsh fans inside the arena played a huge part in helping both gymnasts recover from their setbacks.
Reflecting on the atmosphere, Niscoveanu said: ‘After parallel bars I felt a bit nervous, but the crowd really helped and I managed to do a good high bar and floor routine.’ Vernon echoed those thoughts, adding: “After I fell on parallel bars I could hear them all cheering for me and it definitely made it easier to get back up and move onto the next piece.”
With both gymnasts already demonstrating their quality throughout the competition, attention now turns to the Commonwealth Games Apparatus Finals on Tuesday 28 July. Vernon will contest the Parallel Bars Final, while Niscoveanu will compete in the High Bar Final as they look to finish their Games on another high.
Congratulations to Elliot and Alex on two outstanding performances and for proudly representing Wales amongst the very best all-around gymnasts in the Commonwealth.