Boost to Mosspark gymnast's hopes for Commonwealth Games selection
Monday 25 March 2002
Mosspark gymnast, Lynne Donaghy received a boost to her hopes of gaining selection for the Bank of Scotland Scottish Team competing in the Manchester 2002 Commonwealth after placing second against Scotland's top gymnasts in last weekend's 'Control Competition' at Perth's Bell Sports Centre.
The 15 year old Bellahouston academy student's achievement was magnified by the fact that she has effectively been in full training for just six months following a series of knee injuries. But with the help of Celtic physio, Brian Scott she has fully recovered and is back to gruelling twice daily training sessions.
"Until now the funding hasn't been in place to allow us to train the way we need to."
"I was quite surprised to come second but I've been putting a lot of work in and I train morning and night," said the quiet but plucky teenager this week.
"I've been wanting to get in the Commonwealth Games for years so it would be a great achievement if I can get selected. There's another trial in two weeks and another in six weeks after that, so as long as I stay up at the top then I hope to do it."
Women's gymnastics comprises four disciplines - the vault, asymmetric bars, floor and beam. Donaghy has no favourites although the bars, on which she has worked exclusively whilst recovering from knee injury, has become a key strength.
"I prefer to see her working on the bars," said Scotland's Commonwealth Games coach, Colin Still. "Her level of bar routine is higher than the rest of her pieces and she's more competent and at home on that piece because she's been there so often."
Still, who has coached at no less than five Olympics and is one of only seven coaches worldwide who holds the International Coach Honorary Diploma, believes that Donachy's quietly determined attitude helped her achieve last weekend's result.
"She is determined, she knows what she wants and she gets her head down and goes for it.
"She held herself together and produced the routines in competition that she did in training so she ended up with the results she did.
"She'd lost a lot of experience in competition that we would have liked, but she's come back very strongly, has put routines together which she's been able to perform and as you can see by the results she's right up there amongst them."
Donachy will face two further selection hurdles before the team nominations are made.
"We make our nominations on the 20th May," said Team Manager for Gymnastics, Ian Whyte. "The next one is on 30th of March in Wales and the last one is in London on the 19th May.
"We hope to select five gymnasts as we feel we need to be very competitive in the gymnastics team event. There are so many apparatus specialists in the world of gymnastics that, if we want to be in with a chance of finals and medals, we need our best possible gymnasts competing and supporting each other."
Whyte is up beat about the state of Scottish Gymnastics and although he is wary of raising hopes to medal winning proportions, he does believe that a place in the top five is a realistic goal for Scotland.
"It's difficult to medal because there are so many variables in gymnastics.
" A key aim is to get both teams into the top five or six; two men and women in the top 24 in the all round finals, preferably in the top half; and we'd like to get two or three gymnasts into the individual apparatus finals. On this form, Gayle would be a key performer for us and would be likely to figure in both sets of finals.
"There's greater strength and depth in Scottish gymnastics than we've ever had in both the men's and the women's, with higher level performances at British and international level.
"Until now the funding hasn't been in place to allow us to train the way we need to.
"But the sportscotland lottery funding has made a difference as it's helped some of them become almost full time gymnasts. The girls are training under Colin Still who has coached at five Olympics and been the GB coach at World Champs. There's no doubt that it's helped the development of the sport.
"Additionally, and very specifically for Lynne, the City of Glasgow's innovative School of Sport at Bellahouston Academy has allowed her to marry training and competition demands with her academic programme."
George Mitchell, Treasurer & Managing Director of Bank of Scotland, said, "Bank of Scotland is proud to be the title sponsors of the Scottish Team who will be competing in the Commonwealth Games this summer. We hope Lynne Donaghy will be an integral part of the team and if her current performance continues she is definitely one to watch. We wish her good luck her efforts to make the team for Manchester."
- In December 2000 Bank of Scotland announced its second time sponsorship of the Bank of Scotland Scottish Team for the Commonwealth Games. The Bank's sponsorship specifically funds coaching and preparation for the team to help improve our athletes' medal chances.
- Bank of Scotland is the largest commercial sponsor of youth sport in Scotland and this year over 12,000 young people will take part in youth development projects supported by Bank of Scotland.
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