Keatingsgetsbackonthehorse
After missing out on the Olympics, Scot goes to Moscow determined to prove a point, hears Susan Swarbrick
IF you let it, disappointment and f rustration can eat you up inside. That is something Daniel Keatings knows only too well. Last summer the Scottish gymnast felt like his whole world was caving in when he failed to secure a spot in the Team GB Olympic squad.
But Keatings is not one to wallow in self- pity for long. Having allowed a suitable period to grieve over the what could have been, he dusted himself off and got back in the game.
“It was important not to dwell on the disappointment of London 2012,” he says. “The best way to go about it is to use that as fuel for your fire and that’s what I’ve done. I’ve got my head down in the gym and worked hard because I wanted to prove a point and get myself back on the team. Now I can hopefully start achieving some great things again.”
Testament to that determination was five gold medals at the British Championships in Liverpool last month. Having claimed top honours in the parallel bars, pommel horse and high bar in the senior men’s apparatus finals, Keatings, 23, returned the next day for the masters apparatus f i nals to cl aim f i rst place again on pommel horse and parallel bars.
Impressive in anyone’s books but Keatings, a self- described perfectionist, still laments the one that got away. “I took five out of six possible golds. I’d won the same piece [high bar] the day before, but then made a small mistake,” he says. “I was happy with what I’d achieved with the five, but obviously I could have had one more ...” he trails off, laughing.
“Perfectionism is a good trait – but also a bad one,” he adds. “In training I love to do everything perfectly and can go in a bit of a strop if things aren’t going right on the hard days. I just want to achieve as much as I can.”
On t hat s c ore, Keatings currently has few worries.
“I’m definitely happy,” he says. “The last two years have been hard through injuries and not making the Olympic team, so I wanted to come back with a bang.
“I’m in a different place now. This time last year I was coming back from some serious ankle injuries, I felt a lot of pressure, mentally and physically, it was challenging. I’ve cleared my mind completely now, I’m feeling in great shape and confident.”
Keatings will get to further gauge that return to form as part of the British team competing at the European Artistic Gymnastic Championships in Moscow this week.
It will be his first European Championships since Birmingham in 2010, when he claimed victory over Olympic silver medallist and British team-mate Louis Smith in the pommel horse final. Only days later, however, triumph turned to heartache when Keatings damaged his anterior cruciate ligament in his knee in a training fall.
“It was horrible. I went from such a high to a low,” he recalls. “Getting gold at a European Championships in front of a home crowd, it was one of the biggest highlights of my career. Then two days later in the gym, to have such a serious injury, was terrible.
“I think I was still hyper and on a high from my medal. I went back in and was trying all these new moves. I was on the floor, did a double somersault and landed with a straight leg. That was it, damage done.
“I never got the chance to defend my title. It will be good to go out there and compete. There will be some rivalry as obviously I want to achieve the same result as I did in 2010.”
His focus will be on the parallel bars and pommel horse, with an eye on the high bar too. “The goal is to go out and do my routines clean, without any major errors, and who knows what that might get me?” he says. “Some of the scores I’ve been posting are enough to medal on two pieces of apparatus. I’ll be looking to make at least one final.”
He will be joined by fellow Scot and Olympic team bronze medallist Daniel Purvis who, having lost out on the 2013 British allaround title to Max Whitlock, will be looking to put that nightmare weekend of uncharacteristic errors behind him.
Purvis, 22, took all- around bronze at the World Cup in Tokyo last weekend to finish his 2012/13 season as the No 2-ranked gymnast in the world behind Germany’s Marcel Nguyen.
Completing the six-strong men’s team is Whitlock, Sam Oldham, Theo Seager and Ashley Watson, while 2013 British all-around champion Gabby Jupp, Becky Downie, Charlie Fellows and Ruby Harrold make up the women’s squad.