British Olympic Hopes in Gymnastics

Beth Tweddle should lead Britains strongest ever Gymnastics team to Beijing. Britain has not won a Olympic medal in Gymnastics since claiming Bronze in the women's team event in 1928.

Qualification

Qualification for Beijing is based on the results of the 2007 World Championships held in Stuttgart (1-9 September 2007).

The places (98 men + 98 women) will be awarded as follows:

• 12 best ranked teams qualify 6 gymnasts
• 3 teams ranked 13-15 qualify 3 gymnasts
• 3 teams ranked 16-18 qualify 1 gymnasts
• 7 men + 9 women gymnasts from NOCs outside top 18 with the best individual result
• 6 men + 4 women gold medalists in the individual events if they are not already qualified
• 3 places granted by FIG Executive Board to ensure participation of the Host Nation and each continent
• 1 invitational place

Form

Beth Tweddle claimed Britain's first ever gymnastics World title after winning the gold medal for asymmetric bars at the 2006 World Championships. This followed a similar success in the 2006 European Championships. Tweddle was unable to defend her Commonwealth title (won in Manchester, 2002), but Louis Smith and Imogen Cairns both won gymnastics gold at at Melbourne in 2006.

Beth Tweddle has a Bronze Medal on asymmetric bars at the 2005 World Championships and Silver in the 2004 World Cup Final and 2004 European Championships.

What to watch

A visit to men's preliminary competition was our first event at Athens 2004. For Beijing, the girls are very keen to see some of the women's events, so we will probaly look to get tickets for the individual finals to see Beth Tweddle as this is one of our Medal Chance selections.