A fantastic floor routine from Britain’s Olympic medal hopeful secured Tweddle silver at the European Championships in Clermont Ferrand, France.
The 23 year old member of the City of Liverpool Gymnastics club lost out on the gold medal by 0.25 of a point to 17-year-old Romanian Sandra Izbasa.
The judges were booed by the crowd as the marks awarded to Tweddle for her ambitious routine.
Tweddle told the BBC, “I was a late entrant into the competition because I’ve had injuries and I only started working on my floor routine two weeks ago. It’s always nice go home with a medal, whether it’s on the bars or on the floor. It’s nice to show I’m still up there on the floor and people can watch out for me later in the year at the Olympics.”
Tweddle became Britain’s first ever world gymnastics champion in 2006, and will be hoping to add to her medal tally this summer in Beijing.
However she failed to successfully defend her uneven bars title in France, finishing fourth to Russia’s 15 year old world champion Ksenia Semenova. Tweddle’s team mate, Rebecca Downie, came eighth in the uneven bars and the vault.
The British squad, which also included Laura Jones, Hannah Clowes and Marissa King came sixth in the team event final.
Tweddle is the featured sportswoman in this month’s Observer Sport Monthly feature How I Got My Body.
Louise Hudson, Sportsister
The Women’s Sports Magazine
