Commonwealth Games 2026: ‘room for improvement’ but McClenaghan 2.0 on track

McClenaghan’s scores surpassed the 13.466 and 13.900 he registered at the two World Cup competitions in Azerbaijan and Antalya when he returned earlier this year.

The 15.533 he achieved in the Olympic final is still well short of his personal best, but his polished routine in Glasgow was a step in the right direction and saw him comfortably third in Monday’s final behind Scotland’s Reuben Ward and Canada’s Jordan Carroll, who both registered 14.550, but was much harder than McLain.

Always striving for perfection, the Newtownards man still feels there are elements of his routine that need to be tweaked, even if they will be minimal adjustments rather than major changes.

His great rival Max Whitlock is not competing in Glasgow due to injuryMcClenaghan now has a real chance to do what he wanted to do at these Games, sandwich the 2022 silver with another gold after winning his first Games in 2018.

“There is more room for improvement,” he added.

“I was in the heat of the moment with my difficulty scores and decisions, I was a bit unbalanced and had a lot of tension in my arms, so now I have the chance to train for Monday’s final where I should be a bit sharper and more agile and do a better routine than today.”

McClenaghan’s only disappointment on what proved to be a productive afternoon was his failure to reach the floor final.

Competing for the first time since the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, there was a stumble on her way to landing a final triple somersault as she scored 12.350.

It was a rare blip but he will be back on the (pommel) horse quite literally in Monday’s final, which will no doubt help him bounce back from that disappointment towards another big prize and a chance to further enhance his legacy.

“I was delighted to come here and compete on floor but at the same time I was here to win a medal, it was a real shame, I was going too far for the stuck landing on the dismount and it just rolled me over.

“The rest of the routine was great and it was nice to have the opportunity to perform it here.”