Commonwealth Games History for Claudia

Bristol Hawks Gymnast Claudia Fragapane reigned supreme at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow making history as the first Englishwoman to win four GOLD medals at a CWG in 84 years.

Bristol Hawks gymnasts have now won an incredible 9 Commonwealth Games medals over 3 Championships: Five Gold; Two Silver & Two Bronze.

Claudia was the youngest member of the England Women’s Artistic Gymnastics team at the games. She performed, for her first time at a major senior international, on all 4 apparatus for Team England [she competed on just the floor and vault for Team GB at this years European Championships where the team won the silver medals].

She proved she is able to cope well with the pressure of top-level competition by qualifying for four finals & winning Team Gold; All Around Gold; Vault Gold and Floor Gold.

In a superb championships for GB’s home nation gymnasts an incredible 12 Gold’s 11 Silver and 11 Bronze medals were won across the disciplines:

Women’s Artistic Gymnastics
Team Gold – England [Becky Downie; Hannah Whelan; Ruby Harrold; Kelly Sims and Claudia Fragapane]. Team Bronze – Wales [Lizzie Bedoe; Jessica Hogg; Angel Romeo; Raer Theaker and Georgina Hockenhull].
All Around Individual – Gold: Claudia Fragapane; Silver:Ruby Harrold and Bronze: Hannah Whelan.
Vault – Gold: Claudia Fragapane.
Bars – Gold: Becky Downie & Bronze: Ruby Harrold.
Beam – Bronze: Georgina Hockenhull.
Floor – Gold: Claudia Fragapane.
Men’s Artistic Gymnastics
Team Gold – England [Max Whitlock; Sam Oldham; Nile Wilson; Kristian Thomas and Louis Smith]
Team Silver – Scotland [Adam Cox; Daniel Keatings; Dan Purvis; Frank Baines and Liam Davie]
All Around Individual – Gold: Max Whitlock; Silver: Dan Keatings; Bronze: Nile Wilson
Floor – Gold: Max Whitlock
Pommel Horse – Gold: Daniel Keatings; Silver: Max Whitlock; Bronze: Louis Smith
Rings – Bronze: Dan Purvis
Vault – Silver: Kristian Thomas
Parallel Bars – Gold: Dan Purvis; Bronze: Max Whitlock
High Bar – Gold: Nile Wilson; Silver: Kristian Thomas
Rhythmic Gymnastics
Team Silver – Wales [Frankie Jones; Laura Halford and Nikara Jenkins]
All Around Individual – Silver: Frankie Jones; Bronze: Laura Halford.
Hoop – Silver: Frankie Jones Ball – Silver: Frankie Jones; Bronze: Laura Halford Clubs – Silver: Frankie Jones Ribbon – Gold: Frankie Jones

Claudia started superbly in the team event successfully completing her double twisting Yurchenko then leading out the team on bars and producing a steady performance. She anchored the team on both beam & floor where she went up last in the team and hit her highly difficult routines ensuring every one of her scores counted towards the team total.

It was a fantastic England performance with Claudia’s team mates Hannah Whelan, Becky Downie, Ruby Harrold and Kelly Sims all putting in stand out routines to secure a historic win for Team England over strong opposition from Australia, Wales, Canada, Scotland & South Africa.

Claudia’s great showing in the team event qualified her into four finals.

For an individual gymnast the All Around competition, which determines the top gymnast over all the events, is the most coveted. Claudia showed her determination and tenacity when an error on beam nearly finished her chances of a win. She fought back producing her best work to finish the routine with a highly difficult full twisting back somersault, nailed, and her new dismount of double flick into double pike back dismount secure. This put her in an excellent position with her stand out apparatus to come. On floor she didn’t disappoint – she didn’t hold back she just went 100% for all her most complicated tumbles and truly performed her dynamic, bouncy original choreography. The capacity audience at the hydro arena went wild and the judges rewarded her excellent performance. It was a result that succeeded all expectations… 16 year old Claudia Fragapane Champion of the Commonwealth!

With 2 Gold medals in the bag and three days of competition already completed Claudia had to contain her excitement and refocus ready to perform on two more successive days of apparatus finals. Coping well with the no warm up touch on the podium, something learnt at the Europeans earlier in the year, Claudia stormed down the run up to produce her best double twisting Yurchenko followed by her second vault a round off ½ on straight front with ½ twist off. It was enough to beat Canadian powerhouse Elsabeth Black and India’s Dipa Karmakar. A third GOLD for Claudia and it was becoming a dream competition for Bristol Hawks ‘Pocket Rocket’.

On to the fifth day of successive competition – anyone who can keep producing top-level gymnastics day after day having never been in that situation before deserves a medal!!! First was the beam final and although Claudia corrected her mistake from the AA it wasn’t enough for a medal on this apparatus, she placed 5th. Top honours went to a difficulty packed routine from Elsabeth Black with Australia’s steady Mary Anne Monckton taking silver and an excellently executed routine from Welsh gymnast Georgina Hockenhull winning bronze.

However Claudia still had one more final to complete her favourite, the floor exercise. The question everyone was asking was ‘could she produce her highly difficult floor tumbles after competing under pressure for five days in a row?’ She answered the doubters with a crowd pleasing routine that included her full twisting double straight somersault and her own unique style of choreography to win the gold by a massive margin. She had won far more than the historic four golds – she had won the hearts of the audience and judges at the Hydro arena in Glasgow and in the days that followed it was clear she had won the admiration of a nation. Who would have believed that the little 6 year old girl that joined us at Bristol Hawks Gymnastic Club all those years ago would 10 years later produce such an inspirational performance? The answer WE WOULD – her family, friends, and her team of coaches and support staff at Bristol Hawks who have shared her love of the sport, witnessed her dedication, determination and hard work. Everyone needs someone to believe in them and help them through the difficult times and cheer them on through the good times Claudia has a great family both in her blood relations but also in her Bristol Hawks family – she truly has deserved this success and we are certainly going to all continue to enjoy sharing her journey wherever it may lead.