ALICE Kinsella hailed the motivational impact of her ‘amazing’ team-mates after helping Great Britain earn a historic World Championship silver in Liverpool.
The Basildon born ace left the stage with head in hands after a fall on the beam during the hosts’ penultimate rotation but bounced back to deliver an accomplished floor routine as Britain recorded their best-ever women’s team result at this event.
It was also enough to secure a quota place for the Paris 2024 Olympics, with Kinsella adding another team medal to a collection already containing Olympic bronze, European silver and Commonwealth gold.
“It feels so surreal,” she said.
“We’re absolutely speechless, but honestly I couldn’t be more proud of this team.
“I had the mistake on beam and put that behind me.
“It was tough but having these girls really helped.
"I just wanted to go out there and absolutely smash floor, trust myself, trust my training and that’s what I did.
“It helps having such an amazing team around me. They brought me back up because I was a bit down. Without them, I wouldn’t have been able to do it.”
Britain were competing alongside favourites USA in the showpiece and kept the M&S Bank Arena crowd gripped as they went toe-to-toe with their star-studded transatlantic rivals.
Kinsella was particularly impressive on uneven bars, leading the British trio with a score of 14.100, and will now hope to take that form into this evening’s individual all-around final.
The 21-year-old took all-around silver home from August’s European Championships in Munich, a competition won by Italy’s Asia D’Amato – who is not in Liverpool due to injury.
Olympic silver medallist Rebeca Andrade spearheads an illustrious start list and the Brazilian qualified top while the home challenge is provided by Kinsella and Jessica Gadirova, who wowed the crowd in the team final with a superb display on floor which raised brief hopes of a remarkable gold.
The USA held on for a record-breaking sixth consecutive triumph but Gadirova, for whom the all-around is one of three individual finals, was delighted to start her week with a medal.
“I’m so proud I could help the team score and put that floor routine up,” she said.
“Doing the floor felt amazing, my tumbling was amazing and I could hear the crowd cheer me on.
“I wanted to put my best performance out there for them and I’m so pleased. Everyone loves the music and the dance, which makes me so happy.”
>The World Gymnastics Championships Liverpool 2022 will be one of the largest international sporting events ever to be held in the city. Over 500 gymnasts from more than 70 countries will compete at the M&S Bank Arena from 29 October to 6 November 2022.
Tickets are available at www.2022worldgymnastics.com/tickets.
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