Rhys McClenaghan targets podium Olympic finish after winning back-to-back world titles

After claiming another stunning gold medal in the pommel horse event at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, Rhys McCleneghan is now focused on a top-podium finish at next summer's Paris Olympic Games.

The 24-year-old retained his world title in Antwerp, with a score of 15.100, well up on his qualifying mark of 14.933. And so a second Olympic appearance beckons for McCleneghan, a chance to atone for the disappointment in Tokyo where he came off the apparatus early in his routine and finished out of the medals in seventh.

Looking ahead to competing in the French capital next summer, the County Down competitor told RTÉ Sport's Evanne Ní Chuilinn: "I'm going to my second Olympic Games and hopefully I'll put in a performance like today. Made the final the last time, first Irish person to do that.

"Now we're going to back and try and take a medal home.

"That's certainly my goal after I proved that I can be world champion, twice. I have my eye on that top podium [in Paris] and if that ever changes, you can slap me over the back of the head and tell me to 'wise up'."

Medal ceremony

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McCleneghan was last of the finalists to enter the arena in the Belgian city, but did not catch any of the routines that went before, focussing only on his own performance.

"I didn't look at any of my competitors' routines, they are two giant screens at the back of the warm-up hall, a case of avoid," he revealed.

"That's what kept me focussed on my own routine. They were a lot of falls