AMY Tinkler has defied her own expectations to make the Great Britain squad for next month’s World Gymnastics Championship in Montreal after a year blighted by injury and upheaval.
Thirteen months ago Tinkler, at 16, the youngest in the GB Olympic team, produced a faultless routine to win a surprise bronze medal in the women’s floor final in Rio.
Midway through her GCSEs and firmly embedded in the South Durham club she had first entered at the age of four, Tinkler might have been expected to ease back into her old and evidently successful routine. But her hunger for improvement led her family to make the tough decision to relocate to the South Essex club in Basildon, famous for nurturing Max Whitlock to his historic double-gold-medal success.
Tinkler also endured an operation on a torn calf muscle in April, forcing her to question whether she would be fit for her first major competition since Brazil.
“It’s definitely been a tough year for me with the move and the injury and to be honest I didn’t expect to be back in time for Montreal, so to be part of the squad is a massive boost,” said Tinkler. “It was the first operation I’d ever had so it was a bit scary. I’m 20 weeks post-operation now and I only really started training again seven weeks ago, so to get all my skills and fitness back is pretty incredible.”
“Getting the bronze medal just motivated me to do even better and moving to South Essex meant that I could further my career,” added Tinkler. “It’s not such a big deal – I was in the gym all the time when I was in Durham anyway, so I don’t really notice any difference.
“Nor I do feel any extra pressure. I got a bronze medal at the Olympics but that’s it. The more you go around thinking I’ve got one medal and I’m fine, the harder your competitors are going to be working to overtake you.”
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