By Karen Braun
PARIS (Reuters) -It was all smiles, and a few happy tears, for Rhys McClenaghan as he struck gold on the pommel horse on Saturday at the Paris Games, earning Ireland their first ever Olympic gymnastics medal.
After the 25-year-old glided through his performance and nailed his dismount, the emotional whirlwind began.
“I knew that I’d done my job,” he said of the moment he landed, scoring a 15.533.
“I knew I went through my most difficult routine that I could do on this day and that’s where the tears and the emotions came from.”
McClenaghan had held off what he described as the most talented Olympic pommel horse field in history, which included silver medallist Nariman Kurbanov of Kazakhstan and bronze finisher Stephen Nedoroscik of the U.S.
Kurbanov, who earned Kazakhstan their first ever Olympic medal in gymnastics, was just one-tenth of a point behind McClenaghan and Nedoroscik finished 0.233 of a point from the victor.
Nedoroscik is taking home his second bronze of the Games after helping the U.S. to a third-place finish in the team event.
“This has been my goal for so many years, so I’m just beyond honoured and excited,” he said.
Briton Max Whitlock, the champion on the apparatus at the last two Olympics, was edged off the medal podium by one-tenth of a point, finishing fourth despite improving on his qualification score.
Whitlock was aiming to win a medal on the apparatus for the fourth successive Games having collected a bronze in 2012.
(Reporting by Chang-Ran Kim, Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber, Karen Braun and Rory Carroll, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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