13. Juni 2008  
Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire  
Artistic Gymnastics

GYMmedia Exclusive: Daniel Keatings is dreaming from Beijing already ...New: KEATINGS selected for Beijing!

Dan KEATINGS (GBR)
- 3-times European gold medallist

The former gymnast of the German gymnastics premier league "1st Bundesliga" and member of the top club "SV Halle", Nico TANDEL,  just now and temporarily resides nearby Cambridge and is working as a coach of the wellknown Britisch Gymnastics Club Huntingdon", where four of the British team members of the 2007 Worlds in Stuttgart are coming from - Louis Smith, Daniel Keatings, Luke Folwell and Marissa King all made the GB team and have made Huntingdon Gymnastics Club very proud.
As a special GYMmedia correspondent Nico Tandel  had the occasion to speak with the young British pommel horse wonder Daniel KRATINGS, winning three gold medals at the European Junior Championships and best of juniors all-around in May, in Lausanne, Switzerland ...:

Atmosphere at the 'Huntingdon Olympic Gymnastics Club'

Daniel Keatings: At the World Cup in Cottbus won Berki, but the European Champion on pommel horse was beat at the World Cup in Moscow at the end of May...!

* GYMmedia exclusive Interview
   with the reigning British all-around champion and three-times gold medallist of the 2008 Junior Europeans
* Daniel KEATINGS

Nico Tandel / GYMmedia:--- The last weeks were very hard for you!  You’ve been the best gymnast in the Junior European Championchips and on the pommel horse you have won the World Cup in Moscow, all these against the famous gymnast Krisztian Berki (Hun). Congratulation for these results.

Daniel Keatings: Thank you, I enjoyed myself!

Nico: ---  What are your next aims? You will join the Olympic Games in Beijing?

Keatings: Yes – I hope to be on the plane to Beijing – that is my main target.

The young Daniel some years ago at the 'GWG Cup' with his coach Popov

Nico: ---  When did you start with artistic gymnastics?
Keatings: I was 5 and I went to a local club in my home town of Corby.

Nico: ---  What you do professional and what you want to become?
Keatings: At the moment I am a full time gymnast. I travel an hour each way to the gym at Huntingdon and struggle to do anything else. I would like to continue working in sport but will explore my options after my gymnastics is done.

Nico: ---   A coach from this club has said, that it is normal here, that all gymnasts made a lot of circles, how many have you made and was are the best results in one time?
Keatings: When I was young, we did hundreds and hundreds of circles. My best amount on the mushroom is 279 in one go. You need to build up to this amount though.

Two world class pommel horse gymnasts Louis SMITH and Dan KEATINGS (right) with their caoch Paul HALL (middle)

Nico: ---  You train in Huntingdon club, not far from London. How old is this club and how many members has this club?
Keatings: The club is 30 years old and has 700 members.

Nico: --- I have heard, that this club will become bigger, is this official?
Keatings: We have exciting plans for a new building next to the existing one. It is our dream to have one facility for our elite athletes and another one for the community. We need to find 4 million pounds!
Nico: ---  What aims and success has this club, also in view of London 2012?
Keatings: We aim to continue producing international gymnasts and Olympians as well as serving the wider community by offering gymnastics lessons for people of all ages and ability.

GYMmedia correspondent:
Nico TANDEL

Nico: ---  A private question for the feminine fans J, do you have girlfriend?
Keatings: Not at the moment.

Nico: ---  Luis Smith, also a good gymnast from Huntingdon and the second master on the pommelhorse in the World Cup in Moscow - is he your friend or enemy
Keatings: Louis is my great friend: We help each other in training and support each other in competition.

Nico: ---  Thanks for this interview. Gymmedia wishs you good luck and best results for the next competitions and enjoy the beautiful discipline artistic gymnastic!
Thanks for the answers!

* The " HUNTINGDON OLYMPIC GYMNASTICS CLUB"
The club was founded approximately 28 years ago by Head Coach, Terry Sharpington, operating in a local school with 20 gymnasts and a minimum of apparatus ( 2 mats, a vaulting horse and a mone made springboard!):
A few parents volunteered to help and eventually trained to become qualified coaches.

Now, many years later Huntingdon Gymnastics Club boasts some of the best gymnasts in Great Britain with many of our gymnasts competing internationally. Not only do we train gymnasts of international standard but we also have champions at every level - from club through county, regional and national.
We also run an extensive recreational programme which reaches children of all ages and ability.
Our disability programme is very popular and we look forward to being able to extend this service in the future.
From the 13th February 2008, HOGC became incorporated as Huntingdon Gymnastics Club Ltd.
We are now in the process of applying for charitable status and once this has been obtained we hope to surge ahead with our building plans.
* source: Website of Huntingdon Olympic Gymnastics Club
_________________________________________________

>> Last News: Daniel Keatings selected for Beijing!!
13-Jun-2008

The British Olympic Association have today announced that Huntingdon’s Louis Smith and Daniel Keatings have been selected to compete for Great Britain at the years Olympic Games in Beijing.

Matthew Greenwood, British Gymnastics Performance Director: "Louis and Daniel fully deserve their place in the Olympic Games. They have been fantastic and consistent performers on the World stage over the last 2 years and have surprised many of the World best gymnasts. Their inclusion in the Olympics marks a significant stage in the development of Men's' Artistic Gymnastics in Great Britain, and I am fully confident that they have the ability to achieve great things in Beijing."
Daniel Keatings: "It's a great honour to be able to represent my country in something which has been my dream for my whole life.  It hasn't really sunk in yet, but I am very excited and I just want to get going now."

Louis Smith: "Fourteen years of hard work is starting to pay off and doing a clean routine at the Olympics would consolidate all the time and effort I have contributed to my sport, which has been the passion of my life.  I am very proud to be representing GB in Beijing."

Further to Daniel and Louis being selected, British Gymnastics would also like to congratulate Southport’s Daniel Purvis who has been selected as the reserve gymnast indicating his fantastic development in recent years.
* Source: V. Atkinson, British Gymnastics