ARTISTIC GYMNASTICS: Aussie Gymnast Clay Stephens has just missed the podium in the final of the vault on the evening of Day 8 at the Youth Olympic Games, finishing in fourth position.

“I am happy with how I went and happy with how I held my nerves,” the South Australian said immediately after the competition.

“Obviously you would love a medal, but the top three performed better vaults than me on the day.”

“Congratulations to the rest of the performers.”

Qualifying in eighth position for the final, Stephens executed two very good vaults, but had trouble with his landing.

“In the air I felt pretty clean and really nice, it was just the landings that were a little bit disappointing,” he said.

The 17-year-old matched it with the best in his first vault of the night, with a degree of difficulty of 5.2 and an execution of 9.3 to achieve a final score of 14.5.

“I performed a yurchenko double twist and did quite a big hop on the landing, which was a little bit disappointing, but that’s alright,” he said.

He started his second vault of the night ranked in second position.

“The second [vault] was a cikuray one and half twist but I did a big step to the side.”

With a degree of difficulty of 4.8, Stephens was awarded 9.133 by the judges with a -0.1 penalty for the step, to achieve a score for his second vault of 13.833.

Stephen’s final total score was 14.166, behind Giarnni Regini-Moran of Great Britain (14.695), Yue Ma of China (14.416) and Nikita Nagornyy of Russia (14.383).

“I put out two vaults that were fairly good, not at the highest standard. I was hoping for a little bit higher, but it is what it is on the day.”

For Stephens the Youth Olympics has been an incredible experience and never before has he competed in front of such a loud audience.

“It is a big crowd compared to anything I am used to. [But] you focus on the game and what you need to do,” he said.

The teenage gymnast will return to Australia proud of his achievement and inspired to continue with his sport.

“Competing with the world’s best of my age has given me motivation to try new skills and get better with my gymnastics.”

“From here it is back to Adelaide, lots of training and I will try to make a senior national squad next year.”

Although the Youth Olympics are over for Stephens, they are not over for Australia. Fourteen-year-old Tara Wilkie, the youngest member of the Australian team, contests the Rhythmic Gymnastics on Day 10 of competition, Tuesday 26 August 2014.

Frances Cordaro
olympics.com.au
@AUSOlympicTeam