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 WALES gymnastics received a huge boost at this year's Commonwealth Games in Melbourne when California-based David Eaton grabbed a silver medal in the the horizontal bar.
Eaton, a student at San Francisco University and Wales' only male gymnast competing in Melbourne, finished second to Australian Damian Istria by 0.6 points with Scotland's Adam Cox taking bronze.
Eaton's silver, the first won by a Welsh male gymnast at the Commonwealth Games and only the second in total, completed an encouraging games for the team following 15-year-old Jessica Gazzi's fourth place in the women's vault and a strong showing in the women's team event.
DISCIPLINES |
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ARTISTIC GYMNASTICS
Men and women's aparatus:
Vault; Floor
Men only aparatus:
Rings; Pommel Horse; Horizontal Bar; Parallel Bars
Women Only aparatus:
Balance Beam; Uneven Bars
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TRAMPOLINE
Men and women
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RHYTHMIC GYMNASTICS
Women Only
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Team manager Andrew Morris said, "David was the only male gymnast who made the standard for Melbourne and hopefully this silver will help the re-emergence of men's gymnastics in Wales."
The 25-year-old from Nuneaton graduates in May, after which he will turn his attentions to the Beijing Olympics.
"The next step is Beijing for the 2008 Olympics but just seeing the Welsh flag up there means the world to me," he said.
Swansea's Gazzi, the youngest member of the team at 15, finished fourth in the vault final, while Rhian Pugh and Lynette Lisle finished sixth and seventh respectively in the uneven bar final.
"The women have been getting stronger and stronger for some time now," said
Morris.
The women's team also finished fourth, a remarkable achievement for a squad dogged by injury, including Leckwith-based Lisle, who was competing with a broken toe.
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