Rhys McClenaghan to push for more in pommel horse final after topping qualifying

The Irishman will come up against British star Max Whitlock in the final.

Ireland’s Rhys McClenaghan qualified for the Olympic pommel horse final at the top of the pack (Peter Byrne/PA) (PA Wire)

Irish gymnast Rhys McClenaghan hinted at more surprises in store after qualifying for the Olympic pommel horse final at the top of a 65-strong field in Paris.

The Antrim-born specialist on the apparatus, who celebrated his 25th birthday in the athlete’s village on July 21, needed to finish in the top eight for the chance to fight for a medal in a week’s time.

He achieved that and then some in Saturday’s final session at the Bercy Arena, posting a score of 15.200 to draw him level on points with American Stephen Nedoroscik but holding on tenth of a point’s advantage over the day’s runner-up on tie-breaking execution.

“I’m at the top of the mountain and now I’m just enjoying the view,” said McClenaghan, who with pommel horse gold in 2022 became the first artistic gymnast representing Ireland to win a world championship title, one he successfully defended the following year.

“(That phrase) is something I’ve written down in my diary recently and that’s exactly what I’m doing.

“I’m at the Olympic Games, I’m a two-time Olympian, two-time Olympic Games finalist.

“(The performance) could be better, but it was solid. That was the word (coach) Luke (Carson) was using when I came off. I was just like, ‘That was solid and calm’, and that’s what you want to feel like in a reappearance of the Olympic Games, and that’s what it did feel like.

“But of course I want to be pushing more and more, to that perfection that isn’t attainable, really, but we’ll try.”

At the Tokyo Games, McClenaghan finished a disappointing seventh after falling within the first 10 seconds of his final routine.

The title went to Great Britain’s Max Whitlock, a three-time Olympic champion who three summers ago became the first man in more than 40 years to defend a pommel horse gold and, after reversing his decision to retire after Tokyo, announced these would be his fourth and final Games.

Whitlock, who took part in the morning session, qualified in third position with a score of 15.166, with Japan’s Takaaki Sugino and Ukrainian Oleg Verniaiev rounding out the top five following three sets of qualifying sessions on the first full day of Olympic action in the French capital.

McClenaghan, questioned as to whether he gets excited by the potential of pushing for more, emphatically replied: “Every time. It almost takes a bit of pressure off the competition day, because I’m like, ‘I need to improve for tomorrow and then the next day after that.’

“Every single day I go into training I’m treating it like a competition and it’s draining, because every day I’m nervous. I’m putting pressure on myself to perform a routine even though it’s just in front of my coach in the gym, but it then makes moments like this a lot easier.”

Whitlock is listed as one of McClenaghan’s idols on the Paris 2024 website, but as much as he looks up to the 31-year-old, the Briton’s Irish rival has no qualms about spoiling the defending Olympic champion’s retirement party.

Asked what it might take to achieve the ultimate dream, he said: “I don’t know. I don’t care. I’ve got my job to do and hopefully I’m going to do it.”