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| Daniel Keatings can make history with first gold at world championships | Daniel Keatings can make history with first gold at world championships |
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| No British male gymnast has won a gold medal at a world championships, but over the next few days Daniel Keatings intends to make history. Given his quick-handed mastery of the pommel horse, a piece of apparatus that demands a series of smooth 360-degree swings, double leg circles and scissor movements before walking on hands along a 34-36cm wide beam – he might just do it. | No British male gymnast has won a gold medal at a world championships, but over the next few days Daniel Keatings intends to make history. Given his quick-handed mastery of the pommel horse, a piece of apparatus that demands a series of smooth 360-degree swings, double leg circles and scissor movements before walking on hands along a 34-36cm wide beam – he might just do it. |
| “I’m feeling really good, especially on the pommel,” says the 24-year-old. “My routine is much harder than it was, yet in training I’m hitting it. If I can do it in competition it’ll be an amazing result, which will probably be better than ever before.” | |
| Keatings won an all-around world championships silver medal in 2009, so the implication is clear. You mean gold? Keatings says, laughing. “Touch wood, there is that chance,” he says. “But there’s my team-mate Max Whitlock, who is amazing on pommel, as well as Krisztian Berki, who won gold at London 2012, so it’ll be tough.” | Keatings won an all-around world championships silver medal in 2009, so the implication is clear. You mean gold? Keatings says, laughing. “Touch wood, there is that chance,” he says. “But there’s my team-mate Max Whitlock, who is amazing on pommel, as well as Krisztian Berki, who won gold at London 2012, so it’ll be tough.” |
| There is little to choose between the three but at last year’s European championships Keatings finished above both men, and he alsoedged out Whitlock, the double London 2012 bronze medallist, in the pommel at the Commonwealth Games, where Keatings competed in the blue of Scotland. | There is little to choose between the three but at last year’s European championships Keatings finished above both men, and he alsoedged out Whitlock, the double London 2012 bronze medallist, in the pommel at the Commonwealth Games, where Keatings competed in the blue of Scotland. |
| He has huge respect for Whitlock – who displayed his limitlesspotential with three golds, a silver and a bronze in Glasgow – to the extent Keatings insists he would not be overlydisappointed coming second to his friend in China. | He has huge respect for Whitlock – who displayed his limitlesspotential with three golds, a silver and a bronze in Glasgow – to the extent Keatings insists he would not be overlydisappointed coming second to his friend in China. |
| “Our rivalry is quite strange actually, because in training we help each other out a lot,” Keatings says. “Obviously in the team event we are cheering each other on but even in the individual finals I want Max to do as well as he can and vice versa. Clearly I’d like to be first but if it was Max who beat me it really wouldn’t bother me because of the team spirit we have.” | |
| The closeness within the team is obvious when you watch them train at their Lilleshall base. Every daring manoeuvre is applauded, every fall softened by a hand up. While Keatings concedes Britain are unlikely to challenge China and Japan for team gold, he has high hopes they can emulate the bronze medal they achievedat London 2012. | The closeness within the team is obvious when you watch them train at their Lilleshall base. Every daring manoeuvre is applauded, every fall softened by a hand up. While Keatings concedes Britain are unlikely to challenge China and Japan for team gold, he has high hopes they can emulate the bronze medal they achievedat London 2012. |
| It was a medal Keatings was forced to watch from the stands as first reserve, having failed to be selected after tearing knee ligaments in 2011. “I was gutted to miss out,” he says. “An Olympic medal is the only medal I’ve not won but I had known some of the lads since I was six years old. They are family to me and I wanted to show my support. They made history which was amazing to see.” | It was a medal Keatings was forced to watch from the stands as first reserve, having failed to be selected after tearing knee ligaments in 2011. “I was gutted to miss out,” he says. “An Olympic medal is the only medal I’ve not won but I had known some of the lads since I was six years old. They are family to me and I wanted to show my support. They made history which was amazing to see.” |
| This is the first world championships since London 2012 to feature the full gymnastics programme of team, individual all-around and apparatus finals for men and for women. Nine thousand peoplewill watch in the stadium in Nanning. It is a big deal in China and Keatings hopes hundreds of thousands many will watch back home too. For Keatings being back in China is especially symbolic as it was in Beijing he first competed at an Olympics – and where he believes British men’s gymnastics went from a backwater to a serious player. | This is the first world championships since London 2012 to feature the full gymnastics programme of team, individual all-around and apparatus finals for men and for women. Nine thousand peoplewill watch in the stadium in Nanning. It is a big deal in China and Keatings hopes hundreds of thousands many will watch back home too. For Keatings being back in China is especially symbolic as it was in Beijing he first competed at an Olympics – and where he believes British men’s gymnastics went from a backwater to a serious player. |
| “It all started with Louis’s [Smith] medal in Bejing,” he says. “That gave the rest of us the confidence to believe we could do it too and we have pushed on from there. The following year I got my all-round silver at the worlds and became European champion, and ever since everyone has been fighting to get on the team or stay in it. The level of competition now is staggering and it has made us all better.” | “It all started with Louis’s [Smith] medal in Bejing,” he says. “That gave the rest of us the confidence to believe we could do it too and we have pushed on from there. The following year I got my all-round silver at the worlds and became European champion, and ever since everyone has been fighting to get on the team or stay in it. The level of competition now is staggering and it has made us all better.” |
| The training is brutally tough. On the hardest days the gymnasts exercise for between six and seven hours, with only a short break for lunch, and then do a weights session for the legs in the evening. | The training is brutally tough. On the hardest days the gymnasts exercise for between six and seven hours, with only a short break for lunch, and then do a weights session for the legs in the evening. |
| “We’ll try to do 45 minutes on each piece of apparatus at quite high intensity, trying to get a couple of routines on each of the pieceswith a couple of half routines which is very tiring,” Keatings says. “And then at the end of the day we’ll go into the gym across the road and do weights to get some leg power going.” | “We’ll try to do 45 minutes on each piece of apparatus at quite high intensity, trying to get a couple of routines on each of the pieceswith a couple of half routines which is very tiring,” Keatings says. “And then at the end of the day we’ll go into the gym across the road and do weights to get some leg power going.” |
| Given the extraordinary skill and dedication required to be a world-class gymnast does the lack of recognition and financial returns occasionally frustrate him? “Yeah, a little bit,” he says. “But we are all pushing hard to make it more popular. If one of us can become world champion it could be a game-changer.” | Given the extraordinary skill and dedication required to be a world-class gymnast does the lack of recognition and financial returns occasionally frustrate him? “Yeah, a little bit,” he says. “But we are all pushing hard to make it more popular. If one of us can become world champion it could be a game-changer.” |
| And if he is that trailblazer? Another laugh. “I wouldn’t say no.” | And if he is that trailblazer? Another laugh. “I wouldn’t say no.” |
| World artistic gymnastics championships, Nanning, China, 3-12 October. Finals with BBC TV coverage start on 7 October | World artistic gymnastics championships, Nanning, China, 3-12 October. Finals with BBC TV coverage start on 7 October |