Great Britain’s women equalled their best ever performance at the European Artistic Gymnastic Championships by taking silver at the European Championships in Sofia.
The team of Hannah Whelan, Renbecca Downie, Rebecca Tunney, Claudia Fragapane, and Ruby Harrold came away with silver after racking up 170.663 points.
Romania took gold but the GB held out against Russia who ended on 169.329 points.
The result matches GB’s best performance to date when they took silver in the European Championships in Birmingham in 2010.
The competition requires three of the five strong team to compete on each apparatus and every score counts towards the team total.
The team shone under pressure on the beam, and continued to excel on the floor and vault. On the bars the team produced difficult routines under pressure.
Whelan said she was delighted with the team’s effort.
“This means everything to us; it’s hard to put in to words how much it means,” she said. "We have all worked so hard together to make this possible and it’s been worth every second. The support we’ve had has been incredible and we are all so proud.
And Tunney added: “This team are amazing. We knew if we produced our best routines we would be in with a chance of a medal and to do it under so much pressure is a massive achievement. We’ve really shown the other countries what we are capable of and we are all very proud of ourselves today.”
© Sportsbeat 2014