Following the recent World Championships in China, British Gymnastics performance manager Rachel Bayley believes the team is building a talent pathway to deliver even more success on the big stage.
This year has seen British gymnasts win ten gold, ten silver and five bronze medals across the World and European Championships.
The most recent podium success was Max Whitlock’s world all-around silver in China last week, which matched the achievement of teammate Dan Keatings in 2009.
The competition in China also saw World debuts for a number of gymnasts including Claudia Fragapane, who earlier this year helped Great Britain’s women to team silver at the 2014 European Artistic Championships and scooped four golds on her Commonwealth Games debut in Glasgow.
And Bayley, who was appointed from Badminton England to her role with British Gymnastics and charged with leading the implementation and development of a pathway for talent, believes that the achievements in 2014 are an important part in building a system for the future.
"It’s crucial," she told UK Sport. "Not just the profile and media aspect that it brings to the sport but there’s now an absolutely unshakeable expectation of standards within the sport in terms of quality, training and perseverance. Those athletes that have followed that path laid down by the Head Coaches and Performance Directors are starting to come through and reap the rewards.
“The success we have had has been brilliant and certainly with the pathway being so new it positions gymnastics as a modern sport that is inspiring for the next generation of gymnastic talent.
"It’s thanks to our network of committed clubs, coaches and a robust system that we are able to achieve such successes.
“Watching the likes of Nile Wilson and Claudia Fragapane come through into their first World Championships this year has been exceptional.
"We’re starting to compare success within the squad to previous British successes as well as those succeeding from other countries."
© Sportsbeat 2014