Latalia Bevan Joins Gareth Bale, Sam Warburton And Geraint Thomas As Whitchurch High School Royalty

So, it is not just the legendary Welsh Sporting Trinity of Gareth Bale, Geraint Thomas and Sam Warburton who keep the flag of Whitchurch High School flying high on the world stage.

Less than 24 hours after another old boy, Dan Salmon, struck gold in the Men’s Pairs in the lawn bowls with Marc Wyatt, the 17-year-old Latalia Bevan pulled off the routine of her life on Floor to strike silver in the artistic gymnastics.

Bevan had score 13.00 and 13.30 in her two previous floor routines to come into the final as the fourth highest finisher, but with the pressure mounting she was almost faultless when it counted most as she thrilled the packed house with an expressive and complicated performance.

Her score of 13.30 matched her previous best and put her into first place with three gymnasts left to perform. One of those was the all-round champion from Canada, Elsabeth Black.

Australian star Alexandra Eade was next up after Bevan and came in with a routine that had a higher rate of difficulty to her Welsh rivals, 5.10 to 4.80. She was brilliant and picked up a score of 13.333 to move ahead of Bevan.

ARIAN I LATALIA

#TîmCymru #TeamWales pic.twitter.com/EO4orVPSZ3

— Team Wales (@TeamWales) April 9, 2018

Black was next up, with a difficulty rate of 4.70, and she went through a clean routine to raise expectations of another medal. The judges took a different view and awarded her 13.20 marks.

That meant Bevan was guaranteed either a silver or bronze as England’s Taeja James took to the floor with her 5.40 rated routine. With her heart in her mouth, Bevan had to sit and watch as James went into her final tumble and fell out of the arena.

That slip-up cost her a deduction of 0.40 points and she finished with a score of 12.666, only good enough to for seventh place, one behind another Welsh gymnast, Emily Thomas. But the drama didn’t end there as the Canadian coaches put in an appeal over the marking of Black.

Still Bevan didn’t know what colour medal she would be taking home, but then the screen at the Coomera Arena showed the appeal had been rejected. It meant the Whitchurch HS student had become only the third Welsh gymnast to pick up an individual artistic gymnastics medal.

In Glasgow four years ago there was a team bronze and another bronze for Georgina Hockenhull on Beam. Sonia Lawrence picked up a silver in the Vault in 1994.