Rhythmic Team final & individual qualification: Finals secured, Wales 6th

Gemma Frizelle and Elizabeth Popova will be back on the podium at Arena Birmingham tomorrow afternoon for the rhythmic individual all-around final.

That’s after both secured their spot during the Team final and individual qualification this evening for tomorrow’s all-around final, in what is the penultimate day of gymnastics action at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.

They’ve had to wait patiently but Gemma, Elizabeth and Lauryn Carpenter – Team Wales’ three rhythmic gymnasts – finally got their moment in the spotlight on what was day seven of competition at these Games.

Competing in the second of two subdivisions, the trio’s aggregate total of 251.950 saw Wales finish in sixth place in the Team final – where Canada won the gold medal with a total of 272.950.

All three gymnasts in each team compete with each of the four pieces of apparatus and, from those 12 scores, the lowest two scores are dropped from the overall total.

The Team final also doubles up as individual qualification for the all-around and apparatus finals, with the top 16 qualifying for the all-around and the top eight with each piece of apparatus also qualifying for those respective finals.

At 24, Gemma is the older and vastly more experienced of the three Welsh gymnasts and is competing and her second Commonwealth Games.

She placed eighth in all-around qualification, performing elegantly for a total score of 104.900, which included 27.650 with the hoop, 27.300 with the ball, 26.700 with clubs and 23.250 with the ribbon.

Elizabeth, who is still only 15, will take her place in today’s final, despite finish 18^th in qualification. Due to the two gymnast per county limit for finals, four gymnasts inside the top 16 missed out due to their respective nations already having two qualifiers through.

Elizabeth finished with an all-around score of 100.500, scoring 23.400 with the hoop, 27.100 with the ball, a showstopping 27.700 with clubs and 22.300 with the ribbon.

Meanwhile 17-year-old Lauryn also performed beautifully as she, like Elizabeth, was making her debut at a major championship. She finished 24^th with a total score of 88.950 which included 23.000 with the hoop, 23.250 with the ball, 22.600 with clubs and 20.100 with the ribbon.

In addition, Gemma has successfully qualified for the hoop (5^th) and ball (7^th) finals, while Elizabeth is into the ball (8^th) and clubs (4^th) finals.

The all-around final will take place tomorrow afternoon with apparatus finals wrapping things up on Saturday.

FULL RESULTS