Becky Downie becomes European Champion

Becky Downie has taken the European Championship title in Sofia. The Beijing Olympian, who has often come agonisingly close to the medals, finally broke through to produce an outstanding display in the final and take the gold medal for Great Britain.

Becky has always been known for her exceptional and difficult bars routines and in these championships, where the focus has been on the team who won silver on Friday, Becky has looked confident and calm throughout and it was again the case in the final.

Rebecca Tunney also produced an outstanding performance alongside Downie to finish in 4th place as did debutante placing 6th on the .

Becky’s last major individual medal was at the Commonwealth Games in 2006 but she has always been up amongst the best bars workers and continues the golden legacy left by who last won this title in 2011.

Becky said afterwards: “I still can’t believe it, it hasn’t sunk in I’m just really, really happy. There was a doubt in the back of my mind going for the big routine but I knew if I pulled it off I could win the gold medal. To beat the Olympic champion is unbelievable but I knew it was possible; I’ve worked so, so hard on this. You can see the emotion when is stuck my dismount, I knew it was going to be a medal.

Every final I’ve missed I kept having to pick myself up and sometimes you wonder if it will ever come and today it has, it’s worth very moment to have this medal. I can’t believe what I’ve done and what this whole group of girls have achieved this week is absolutely amazing.”

The championships close with the senior team winning team silver and gold for Becky on bars whilst the juniors also took team silver with Becky’s sister Ellie winning all-around bronze and vault gold, Amy Tinkler winning vault bronze and silver and Catherine Lyons winning floor gold.

Competition reports

On vault 16-year-old GBR debutante Claudia Fragapane looked tremendously calm and confident, a little step back double twisting Yurchenko (14,433) first vault and nice clean second vault scored 14,233 for a total average of 14.333 and 6th place.

On bars continued the fine form she showed in qualification, high difficulty with lovely twisting transfer from low to high bar, a small step forward on landing to score 14.933 and a superb 4th place in her first ever apparatus final.

Rebecca Downie stepped up her routine to another level in the final. Her routine was high on difficulty (as with Tunney) and high on execution, flowing between the bars with skill she knew a stuck landing on her dismount would land her in the medal, she landed dead to score 15.500, well above Russian legend Aliya Mustafina to give Becky the gold.

Becky went straight from collecting her gold medal on to the beam where she produced a very controlled routine after the elation of the medal win. She was tight and accurate in her connections and improved on her qualification score to total 14.366 for 5th place.

Claudia Fragapane was last up for Great Britain competing on the floor – the second final for the newest member of the GBR senior team. Her performance was full of energy and life to score her 14.133 for 8th place.

The men’s championships begin in Sofia on Wednesday 21st.