BETH Tweddle admits she exceeded her own expectations by striking gold at the World Gymnastics Championships in Rotterdam.
The 25-year-old from Bunbury was victorious on the asymmetric bars at the Ahoy Arena on Saturday, capitalising after her two main rivals – China’s Olympic champion He Kexin and compatriot Huang Qiushuang – fell during their routines.
“I wasn’t going there for the title. I was just going for a medal, so I’m made up,” Beth told The Chronicle.
The former Chester Queen’s School pupil, who now has three world gold medals in her collection, added: “The Chinese girl was Olympic champion and world champion so it was hers to lose.
“I just heard them hit the floor, I thought ‘oh my gosh’, and I knew I had beaten the other girl in the team final.
“I just tried not to get excited, I told myself ‘you have to put it behind you to take that medal’.”
With a golden opportunity to jump from third place to first, Beth held her nerve, reined in her routine and put in a rock-solid performance.
Even without her adding an extra twirl in her dismount, judges still awarded her a score of 15.733, enough to put the Chester girl ahead of Russia’s world champion Aliya Mustafina.
The victory proved that Beth, a member of the City of Liverpool Gymnastics Club, is still a world-class star, despite being older than almost all of her rivals.
The only gymnast on the world circuit who is older than her is 35-year-old Oksana Chusovitina.
“A lot of people have said about my age, but they have said it for the past two or three years,” said Beth, who will be 27 by the time the 2012 London Olympics come around.
“It depends on the individual. Some it works for, some it doesn’t.”
Beth, who won her first world gold on the bars in 2006 and was world champion on the floor in London last year, is Britain’s greatest ever gymnast and plans to become a physiotherapist once she retires from the sport.
