Saturday 24 October 2015
Even as a tiny tot, Morgan Lloyd was a trailblazing gymnast – at the tender age of one she was practicing her skills at a gymnastics club in her native Cayman Islands, long before many of her peers had even taken their first wobbly steps.
Now, the 16 year old is making history on the global stage, as the first ever gymnast to represent the Cayman Islands at the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.
The tiny Caribbean Island, with a population of just over 58,000, only began competing on the international stage in 2011, but Lloyd’s certainly no stranger to the international scene. With appearances in the All-Around finals at the Pan America Games and Youth Olympic Games already under her belt, she now finds herself representing her country at the greatest gymnastics show on earth inside Glasgow’s iconic SSE Hydro.
Having already achieved a personal best to qualify for the World Championships, Lloyd made her debut today, completing her rotation in front of a hugely energetic crowd inside a rocking Hydro.
However, the Cayman Island’s introduction to the international stage didn’t go entirely to plan for the debutant, with a mistake on the vault leaving her with plenty of work to do.
Lloyd said: “I started at the wrong spot and my hands slipped, but I knew I still had three events left, and I had to forget about it and keep trying.”
“It’s shown me that anything can happen, so I need to be prepared for it.”
Lloyd’s first taste of the World Gymnastics Championships sees her compete amongst a record breaking 594 of the world’s best gymnasts, from 87 countries, for the opportunity to qualify for Rio 2016.
Athletes now face an agonising wait to learn who will be amongst the top 24 athletes to advance to the All-Around Final. The top eight on each piece of apparatus will also progress to the Apparatus Finals of the ‘Worlds’ following the conclusion of the critical preliminary stage.
If, like the Cayman Islands, you’ve never been to the World Gymnastics Championships before and fancy seeing the spectacular event for yourself, a limited number of tickets are still available. Head to www.2015worldgymnastics.com/tickets for your chance to grab a slice of the action.