SOUTH Essex Gymnastic Club’s Brinn Bevan wants winning the English Championship to be the start of a successful 2015.

The Thundersley based 17-year-old saw off a number of international gymnasts, including club-mate Max Whitlock, to finish on top of the podium at Loughborough.

But Bevan now wants to build on his shock title triumph.

“It was amazing to win,” said the former Deanes School pupil.

“I had a pretty good comp but I still made a mistake on the pommel horse when I actually fell off.

“A few of the other seniors made mistakes as well but it was great to come out on top and it was a big shock too.

“I didn’t know I had won until my team-mates told me because they had been working out all the scores.

“It was a really big surprise but hopefully I can build on that now in the other events we have coming up this year.”

The first of those comes this weekend when Bevan travels to Liverpool in the British Championships.

The event will be just Bevan’s second in the senior ranks.

But he is again eager to impress with his routines which have been altered since making the step up from junior competitions.

“I have all new routines because there is a transition you have to make when you go from a junior to a senior,” said Bevan.

“There are new requirements and the routines are much harder as well.

“My aim for this weekend is to just go and perform best that I can but it would obviously be great to pull off the same result again.”

Bevan will certainly be full of confidence heading to the Echo Arena.

And he is also relishing another opportunity to compete after only just recovering from three stress fractures in his back.

“I picked up the injury at the European Junior Championships and was out for nearly a whole year,” recalled Bevan.

“I had three months doing nothing and it took quite a long time to get better.

“British Gymnastics has a really good physio team behind them though so I had a really good rehab programme I was following which has got me back.

“But the English Championships was my first full competition back so that also made it great to win.”

Bevan is now targeting further success this weekend and hopes to be able to qualify for the European Championships, the European Games and the World Championships later this year.

However, reaching the 2016 Olympics in Rio remains his ultimate aim.

“I want to go to the Olympics next year,” said Bevan.

“Some people will say that maybe it’s a bit farfetched but that’s my goal and it’s what I’m working towards.”