Newtownards teenager misses out on golden treble after fall in Doha
McClenaghan's World Championships dreams come crashing down
County Down teenager Rhys McClenaghan has crashed out of the World Gymnastics Championships.
The 19=year-old from Newtownards, who holds Commonwealth and European titles, fell mid-way through his pommel horse routine during qualifying in Doha.
His score of 11.066 was not good enough to qualify for next week’s final.
The teen revealed that a recent shoulder injury had hampered him from completing a golden triple.
While it proved a disappointing twist after his previous gold medals at both the Commonwealth Games and the European Championships, McClenaghan stressed the importance of continuing to focus on the bigger picture.
McClenaghan said: “I had a shoulder injury one and half weeks ago and as a result I'd done maybe three full routines in training, as opposed to almost 100 routines before the Commonwealths and Europeans.
“That just led to a bit of a negative mindset and to be honest pulling-out did cross my mind, but I think it was important to come here and keep focused on Olympic qualification.
“I've been through a lot of tough things this year so I'm happy to come out with two major titles under my belt. Despite what happened here, I'll walk away from 2018 a very happy guy.''
McClenaghan's year is not quite finished as he plans, injury permitting, to head to Cottbus in Germany early next month for the first of the individual World Cups with direct Olympic qualification at stake.
McClenaghan's rival, double Olympic champion Max Whitlock, whom he pipped to gold at both previous big events this year, was due to enter qualifying along with the rest of his Great Britain team-mates later on Friday.