Tweet We just got word that Kieran Behan from Ireland is currently sitting in first place on floor at the Ostrava World Cup Challenger in the Czech Republic in qualification. Kieran, sponsored by athletic clothing company Stoi Athletic Wear, has performed excellently at his two previous challenger cups, winning medals on floor at both competitions. This will be the second event that Stoi will sponsor Kieran at. At the Osijek Challenger Cup back in November the company kitted the Irish male gymnasts out with gear for the event. Sponsorship is a …

Tweet Two weeks ago Full Twist brought you the very exciting news of Irish Gymnastics new rebranding as Gymnastics Ireland. Fllowing on from the very successful brand launch, Gymnastics Ireland has had more to celebrate. The Irish male gymnasts are going from strength to strength as this press release explains:

Irish Male gymnasts go from strength to strength
 
Anthony O’Donnell makes history as he claims Ireland’s First Northern European medal
 
Uppsala, Sweden, 13th November:  The Irish team travelled back to Ireland today after the 2011 Northern European Championships in Uppsala, Sweden with Anthony …

Tweet Geoff Rellis is another Irish gymnast who has made the move to the UK for better training facilities, others include top male gymnasts Luke Carson, Chris O’Connor and Kieran Behan. In August 2010, three time All Ireland Champion Rellis was training at Tolworth Gymnastics Club in the lead up to the 2010 World Championships in Rotterdam when a huge halt was put on his rising career.   While training on vault, something went drastically wrong with his technique during his handspring double front, when he hear a crack on landing and was suffering shooting pains down …

Tweet The first day of the Men’s Qualifications kicked off today. The Irish Men Luke Carson, Kieran Behan and Rohan Sebastian competed in the 4th subdivision alongside Greece, Germany, Uzbekistan and Hungary.
Kieran finished in 53rd place with a score of 80.290 while Luke finished in 54th place with 80.165. Rohan finished in 61st place with 78.915. See all of today’s results here.
Individual Results breakdown:

Rk
Name
NOC
Total
Floor
PH
Rings
Vault
PB
HB

53
BEHAN Kieran
IRL

80.290

14.500
11.633
13.133
14.900
13.033
13.091

54
CARSON Luke
IRL

80.165

13.200
12.933
13.066
14.733
13.700
12.533

61
SEBASTIAN R.
IRL

78.915

13.033
12.766
14.000
14.300
13.316
11.500

A huge amount of live coverage was given to the guys so let’s see what was said:
International Gymnast Magazine on Facebook:
High Bar:

Sebastian IRL high …

Tweet This is one for the Irish Gymnastics fans mostly. Videos of the guys from Podium Training.

Image via Irish Gymnastics
Coach Simon Gale, gymnasts Kieran, Luke and Rohan and coach Xiao Yuan in Tokyo
 
Rohan – Floor

 
Rohan – Pommel

 
Rohan – Vault

 
Luke – Pommel

Kieran’s coach Simon Gale wrote to Full Twist after podium training:
Podium went well. Not perfect, but if they were I would probably worry that the lads would have peaked too soon. With podeum don, the lads seem more relaxed. Judges Colm and Dennis told me that they had many good comments …

Tweet Irish MAG gymnasts Rohan Sebastian, Kieran Behan and Luke Carson began Podium Training today. Rick from Gymnastics Coaching has been keeping a close eye on the boys for us where the guys plans were to go through their routines cleanly and quickly. He chatted to briefly to Luke and Kieran before the session. They were up on floor first, Behan receiving only minor deductions and one out of bounds, overall Rick called it a “very clean”. Blythe from the Gymnastics Examiner describes it as
7:48 p.m.: Ireland’s Kieran Behan does a nice …

Tweet The delegation from Ireland has arrived in Tokyo and have begun to work hard. The girls Charlotte McKenna and Sophie McCoo  began training today with their coaches Alison McMullan and Sun Jei.  This will be Sophie’s first worlds whilst McKenna will return to Worlds after last competing in Tokyo in 2010.

Image via Abbey Gymnastics Centre on Facebook
The MAG team of three have also commenced training. Luke Carson hopes to improve on last years Worlds performance where he placed 95th in the AA qualifications competition in Rotterdam, he also ranked …

Tweet Yesterday was a great day for Irish Gymnastics when Kieran Behan qualified third on floor at the 2011 World Series, Salamunov Memorial Cup (Category B) in Slovenia. Today was an even better day for the Tolworth gymnast when he won the bronze medal in the floor final, just 0.225 behind the first place. This is the best result that Irish Gymnastics have achieved in a FIG World Cup. Also representing Ireland was Anthony McDonnell. The competition also included top names such as Vasiliki Millousi, Matthias Fahrig, Eleftherios Petrounias and Zhang Hongtao also competed. …

Tweet After sharing the title with Sam Hunter in 2010, Daniel Purvis takes the title as the 2011 All Around MAG British Champion. Daniel Keatings followed with silver and Kristian Thomas with bronze.

Daniel Purvis (Southport YMCA) – 91.500
Daniel Keatings (Huntingdon) – 90.500
Kristian Thomas (Earls) – 90.100

Irish gymnasts Luke Carson and Geoff Rellis who train in the UK also competed, while their scores were not included into the official rankings, Luke Carson placed 10th ahead of Sam Oldham. Things are certainly looking good for Purvis ahead of the World Championships, can …

Tweet Irish Gymnastics today named the gymnasts who will represent Ireland at the 2011 World Championships in Tokyo.
MAG
Rohan Sebastian, Kieran Behan and Luke Carson. Kieran Behan from Tolworth Gymnastics Club made himself well known on the European Circuit last year by placing 8th on floor, just missing out on qualifying for the final. Luke was injured back in March and April and couldn’t compete in the Cottbus Cup or in the European Championships, hopefully he will be ok for Worlds. Luke competed in the Commonwealth Games last year and was …

Tweet In February this year, we reported that Irish Gymnastics was to receive an increase in funding from the Irish Sports Council (ISC). Funding to sports has always been an issue in Ireland with GAA, IRFU and FAI (Gaelic Athletic Association, Irish Rugby Football Union and Football Association Ireland) being known as the three big sport governing bodies in the country. They receive the most funding compared to the other 65 recognised  sports governing bodies in Ireland.
According to an article in Ireland’s Sunday Business Post newspaper, funding for the ISC …

Tweet The nominative entries for the 2011 European Championships were released yesterday. The British WAG competitors  will consist of Beth Tweddle, Danusia Francis, Hannah Whelan and Jennifer Pinches. Becky Downie is still injured, I’m not sure about Imogen Cairns. I think that both Whelan and Pinches could do well. Tweddle as always will be one to watch on Floor and Uneven Bars.
Sam Oldham, Louis Smith, Kristian Thomas, Daniel Purvis, Samuel Hunter and Theo Seager will compete for the British MAG. Daniel Keatings who had hoped to make the cut, isn’t …

Tweet Irish gymnasts Kieran Behan and Luke Carson were both in the original Cottbus Cup line up, unfortunately for Carson he had to pull out of competition earlier this week due to a recent injury – best of luck with recovery Luke. Kieran Behan however traveled to Germany to compete in the Cottbus Cup.

 
Photo via Irish Gymnastics
Behan was due to compete on floor, vault and high bar but decided only to compete on floor.  A great decision by the Irish gymnast, his coach Simon Gale and Irish Judge Colm Murray, …

Tweet Yesterday Full Twist posted about Why Irish Sport Matters. €7.8 million is to be invested in high performance Irish athletes and sports in 2011. The Irish Sports Council announced the major funding package for 2011 with a total €25.6 million which will be invested into 57 National Governing Bodies of Sport, including 18 high performance sports, and 32 Local Sports Partnerships.

Irish Gymnastics has been given an increase in funding for 2011. This is particularly fantastic because IG is one of 8 out of 57 sports funded by the Irish …

Tweet Irish gymnast Jennifer Ryan finished seventh in the World Age Final in Metz last month. This is a well deserved placement for Jenny who is extremely committed to her gymnastics, she travels daily from Dublin to County Cavan (a near 2 hour trip) to train in Millennium School of Gymnastics with the rest of her team. Irish Gymnastics reports that this marks the end of Jennifers most successful international year, winning a team bronze medal at the European Championships in Varna, Bulgaria in April and had a reserve final …