PENARTH gymnast Angel Romaeo came fifth in the senior women’s artistic floor final at the British Gymnastics Championships last week.

During the competition, which was held at the Echo Arena in Liverpool between March 21-24, Welsh gymnasts brought home five medals from the apparatus finals on the last day of competition Welsh gymnasts won one gold, two silver and two bronze medals across the espoir, senior men’s and women’s British Championships apparatus finals.

The senior women’s artistic floor final was a distinctively Welsh affair, with Cardiff Central’s Raer Theaker, Angel Romaeo, Jess Hogg and Park Wrekin’s Georgina Hockenhull all competing.

Raer Theaker, who is in her first competitive senior year, won silver in the floor final putting English gymnast Niamh Rippin, into third place.

2012 Northern European gold medallists Angel Romaeo and Jess Hogg finished in fifth and sixth place.

Angel Romaeo and Jess Hogg also finished in tenth and 12th respectively in the allaround.

Georgina, the current Welsh senior women’s artistic champion and also a first-year senior, picked up a bronze medal in the beam final and finished fourth on uneven bars.

Georgina and Raer finished fifth and sixth respectively in the allaround competition.

Andrew Morris, Welsh Gymnastics technical director, said: “Seeing four Welsh representatives in the women’s floor final was great, and credit must be given not only to the performance coaches but to the fine choreography taught by Welsh Gymnastics’ choreographer Ioana Popova.

“Raer competed very well. She has a very strong tumbles on floor which delivered a high start value and this, linked with lovely choreography, won her the silver medal. Georgina’s beam was also really strong and confident, and she is becoming very consistent.”

Barry gymnast Clinton Purnell also won bronze in the senior men’s artistic masters apparatus vault final on Sunday, beating Team GB’s London 2012 squad member Daniel Purvis to the medal in the process.

The 2013 men’s artistic Welsh champion also came sixth in the rings final and finished in eighth place in Saturday’s all-around competition.

Andrew Morris, who was at the championships, said: “Clinton performed really well to qualify for the rings and vault finals. Coming eighth in the all-around is an improvement on last year’s British. If he had a cleaner competition and scored as well as he did in the Welsh championships in February, he would have been close to an allaround medal.

“He was chuffed to pick up the bronze medal and repeated his achievement of last year; however I believe he was unlucky not to be awarded the silver this time. Looking ahead to the Commonwealth Games in 2014, it’s time to unleash some of his bigger vaults and go for gold in Glasgow.”

In the under-12 espoir category, Maisie Methuen, competing for Phoenix Gymnastics Club, won gold in the vault final, which was followed by a silver medal on beam. teammate Latalia Bevan finished seventh in the uneven bars final.

“Maisie and Latalia in the espoirs looked really impressive. They’re the next generation, eligible for the Commonwealth Games in Australia in 2018, and they are beautiful looking performers, well prepared and confident beyond their years,”

added Andrew.