Gymnastics news - Jessica Gadirova leads Britain medal charge at Artistic European Championship

Jessica Gadirova, Amelie Morgan and Joe Fraser each won medals on Saturday on the first day of apparatus finals at the 2021 Artistic European Championships in Basel, Switzerland.

Gadirova claimed her second medal in two days with a silver on vault, while Morgan took bronze on the uneven bars. Fraser meanwhile took bronze on the pommel horse.

Gadirova followed up her all-around competition bronze on Friday with a silver from two impressive vaults with an average score of 14.466. Switzerland’s Giulia Steingruber took the gold.

After the event she said: “To have the opportunity to compete in another final and then to win another medal, it feels amazing. I know from my training I could do the two vaults, so it was a matter of staying calm and doing what I usually do.

Morgan took fourth in Friday’s all-around final to go one better in the uneven bars final. She went one better on Saturday with a score of 14.100, taking her first medal at a senior major championship.

Morgan said: “I said I was over the moon yesterday (after placing 4th in the all-around final), today I don’t even have the words to describe how I feel, I literally can’t stop smiling! I couldn’t ask for anything more. To win a medal is more than I could ever have asked for, it feels unreal.

“I’ve had a lot of experience now of major competitions particularly from junior level, but this is a step up. To firstly have made my first senior individual final, to then come away with a medal is the icing on the cake. Going into it I just wanted to prove my consistency and put in another good routine, it wasn’t about aiming for that medal. I never expected to be on the podium at the end. It’s amazing!”

Fraser was the penultimate athlete to compete on the pommel horse and scored 14.066. That took him into third, after which he said: “I’m really happy with that result, I had a little mistake mid routine that set me back and from there it was just a case of going for it, swinging as wide as I could. I wouldn’t class myself as a pommel worker so to be in the final was a big achievement and made even more special by being with Joshua (Nathan) from the same club as me.

“Given that in qualifying I made mistakes on the apparatus that I would consider my better ones, it gave me the opportunity to approach this final without expectations so to come away with a bronze medal, I’m more than happy.”