Max Whitlock and Gadirova twins back in action in English Gymnastics Championships season opener

“Oh my god, we’re so fan-girling right now,” said gymnasts Freya Hindle and Ellen Shaw ahead of a big Saturday night (25 February) at the Telford International Centre in the UK.

The teenagers weren’t waiting for Harry Styles to perform but instead, when asked who they were looking forward to seeing in a few hours’ time, said in unison: “The Gadirova twins!”

The pair were at the English Championships and looking forward, along with their team-mates and a packed crowd, to watching the first outing of a plethora of the uber successful British artistic gymnastics squad from last year who were blowing away the cobwebs with their first competition of the season.

British gymnastics' superstars

Max Whitlock, Jake Jarman, Courtney Tulloch, Alice Kinsella, Georgia-Mae Fenton, Ondine Achampong, those twins, Jessica Gadirova and Jennifer Gadirova and a returning Becky Downie all featured in the competition, which decided England’s all-around and individual apparatus champions.

Freya, 17, and Ellen, 15, of the Garstang School of Gymnastics, a small club in a tiny town in north west England were right to be excited. Collectively, the gymnasts competing had won nine Olympic and 20 world medals between them.

“I went to watch the World Championships in Liverpool in that big arena and now we’re competing against them,” said Freya incredulously, having competed in an earlier round.

Ellen laughed when the pair saw the superstars pre-competition. “Freya was like, ‘Oh my god, they're over there having lunch!”

Two thirds of the Olympic medals belong to Whitlock, the 30-year-old only recently deciding to make a run for his fourth Olympic Games, at Paris 2024, after a fallow period in which he struggled with his mental health, which he discussed with Olympics.com earlier this month.

The father of one had already competed at the previous week’s Scottish Championships in an even more low-key return, his first competition back since Tokyo 2020. In the Japanese capital, he’d continued to make more British gymnastics history by defending his pommel horse title. Should he medal in Paris, Whitlock could make Olympic history, being the first gymnast to win a medal on the same piece of apparatus at four Games.

But first thing’s first; today’s English Championships.

Paris 2024 here they come

Both GB women’s and men’s teams have already qualified a five-person team each to the Games in France, courtesy of incredible second and third places, respectively, in the team competition at the 2022 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool, UK in October.

Having secured their quota spots at the first opportunity, GB gymnasts now have a year of upgrading routines to gain those precious extra marks, and honing skills to perfection, without the worry of needing to qualify at the 2023 World Championships in Antwerp in October.

The USA and Canada joined GB women in having qualified for Paris, coming first and third respectively at the worlds, while People’s Republic of China and Japan join GB men, having come first and second in Liverpool.

“It’s quite exciting this year, as we’ve qualified a team for Paris,” said world and Olympic bronze medallist, Kinsella, told Olympics.com at the English Championships. “It’s a year where we can just try out new routines and new skills.”

Jarman, who won an incredible four Commonwealth Games gold medals in Birmingham, UK, in his breakout season agreed. “It’s definitely taken a lot of pressure off all of us because if we hadn’t qualified, we would have had to qualify through the worlds this year.

“I think this year’s going to be a lot more relaxed than it could have been but I’m looking forward to getting back to competing again.”

The Brits had an incredible year last year with three major competitions – the Commonwealth Games, European Championships and World Championships, so all gymnasts took some well-deserved time out.

“I had quite a break after the worlds and took some time off,” Jarman said. “I’m finally getting back into routines again and going to try and get some upgrades, hopefully in time for back end of this year.”

This competition is a way to blow off the cobwebs and get the ball rolling again after being hunkered down in the gym. The fans are keen to see what’s been going on behind closed doors… well, see in the flesh what they’ve been seeing on Instagram anyway.

Thrills and spills

As expected from a first competition out, there were thrills and spills from the gymnasts and oohs and aahs from the crowd, and parents back to being nervy in the stands.

Karen Swaine, Kinsella's mum describes every competition as, "very nerve-wracking but I know she’ll go out there and do what she can do," before admitting she'll sometimes watch, sometimes look at the floor, depending on the competition and how nervous she is.

Today though, Kinsella, and presumably her mum, were happy with her day.

“It went really well,” Kinsella said post-competition, medals clanking around her neck. “Obviously a few cobwebs were out, and it wasn’t the best, but I did go clean. I was really happy with beam, that I was able to go clean – I normally never go clean on beam at an English champs so yeah, all good.”

Achampong, world team silver medallist alongside Kinsella, claimed the women’s all-around title with a consistent display and also bagged the uneven bars win. She was also equal third on beam and equal first on floor with Kinsella. The latter, the 2019 European beam champion, took home the title on that same apparatus with Fenton second.

Whitlock, a two-time Olympic champion on pommel horse unsurprisingly won that event and was second on parallel bars. An issue on high bar left him out of the medals on his third and last apparatus of the day. Jarman secured third on pommel horse, and the title on vault.

Falls and errors put the rest out of the medals but all agreed it was good to get back out there and start the season. And it was good for the fans too.

“We’ve always looked up to them,” says Ellen, “and now we’re against them. Like five years ago they were like role models and now we’re in a comp with them.”

Ellen and Freya turn to each other giggle, the next generation happy to be sharing the floor with the icons of their time.

Artistic gymnastics international schedule 2023 – what's next?

FIG Apparatus World Cup

1-4 March – Doha, Qatar
9-12 March – Baku, Azerbaijan
27-30 April – Cairo, Egypt

European Artistic Gymnastics Championships

11-16 April Antalya, Turkey (preparations are going ahead as planned, in cooperation and coordination with the Turkish Gymnastics Federation)

World Artistic Gymnastics Championships

30 September - 8 October – Antwerp, Belgium