Daniel Keatings
Personal information
Full nameDaniel Ryan Keatings
Nickname(s)Dan
Country represented Great Britain
 Scotland
Born (1990-01-04) 4 January 1990
Kettering, Northamptonshire, England
HometownCorby, England
Height173 cm (5 ft 8 in)
DisciplineMen's artistic gymnastics
ClubHuntingdon
Head coach(es)Paul Hall
Assistant coach(es)Ben Howells
Medal record
Men's artistic gymnastics
Representing  Great Britain
World Championships
Silver medal – second place2009 LondonAll-around
European Championships
Gold medal – first place2010 BirminghamPommel horse
Gold medal – first place2013 MoscowPommel horse
Silver medal – second place2007 AmsterdamPommel horse
Silver medal – second place2009 Milan All-around
Silver medal – second place2010 BirminghamTeam
Silver medal – second place2014 SofiaTeam
Bronze medal – third place2009 MilanPommel horse
Representing  Scotland
Commonwealth Games
Gold medal – first place2014 GlasgowPommel horse
Silver medal – second place2014 GlasgowTeam
Silver medal – second place2014 GlasgowAll-around
Northern European Championships
Silver medal – second place2013 LisburnTeam
Silver medal – second place2013 LisburnPommel horse

Daniel Ryan Keatings (born 4 January 1990[1]) is a retired British artistic gymnast representing Scotland and Great Britain. Both an all-around gymnast and a specialist pommel horse worker, Keatings was the first male British gymnast to medal at the all-around competition at the World Championships, and the first male British gymnast to become a European champion, winning on pommel horse, his signature piece, in 2010 in Birmingham and again in 2013 in Moscow. In 2014, he won gold at the Commonwealth Games, again in pommel horse, for Scotland. With Louis Smith, Max Whitlock and Joe Fraser of England and Great Britain, and Rhys McClenaghan of Northern Ireland and Ireland, Keatings formed part of a golden generation of home nations pommel horse workers who dominated the apparatus at global, continental and Commonwealth Games level from 2010 onwards.

Career

Keatings represented Scotland at the 2006 Commonwealth Games and Great Britain at the 2007 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, 2009 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, 2011 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships and the 2008 Summer Olympics.[2]

In April 2009, Keatings won the all-around silver medal in the European Gymnastics Championships in Milan. He also won the bronze medal in the pommel horse final.[3] In September 2009 Keatings gained a sponsorship deal with business power supplier Opus Energy. The company agreed to cover his competition fees, equipment, and travel costs.[4] During the same year, Daniel also became an official ambassador for premium sports nutrition brand Maximuscle.

On 15 October 2009, Keatings made history when he became the first British gymnast to win a medal in the all-around event at the Artistic World Championships. The event, which was held at the O2 Arena in London, saw Keatings rise to the occasion and record a score of 88.925, taking the silver medal in front of the home crowd.[5]

On 25 April 2010, Keatings made history again when he won Great Britain's first-ever Senior European Championship gold medal on the pommel horse the day after he helped Great Britain to win a historic silver medal in the team competition (their previous highest finish was 9th in 2008).

Returning from an injury, he made a comeback at the 2011 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Tokyo. He did not have a good competition in the preliminary rounds, including a fall off the pommel horse and a particularly nasty fall on high bar. He was not the only one of the British men's team to falter, and the team did not qualify through to the team final, finishing in 10th place. In addition, Keatings failed to qualify through to any of the individual event finals.[6]

On 25 March 2012, Daniel competed at the Turnier der Meister FIG Challenge Cup C III Apparatus Archived 30 June 2012 at the Wayback Machine, Cottbus, Germany. After exceeding all expectations, Daniel reached the final and held his nerve, producing a quality routine that scored 15.775 for the silver medal, just over a tenth of a mark behind the Olympic champion, Xiao Qin of China.

Keatings again represented Scotland at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. As part of the Scottish team, he won a silver medal in the team competition on 29 July 2014[7] and followed this with another silver in the individual all-around final on 30 July.[8] Keatings won gold in the pommel horse final on 31 July with a score of 16.058.[9]

References

  1. ↑ "Team GB > Beijing 2008 > Athlete profile > Daniel Keatings". Archived from the original on 23 August 2008. Retrieved 14 July 2008.
  2. ↑ "Team GB > Beijing 2008 > Team GB".
  3. ↑ "Gymnasticsresults.com". Archived from the original on 4 August 2009. Retrieved 16 May 2009.
  4. ↑ "Keatings gains sponsorship deal", BBC Sport—BBC News, 2 September 2009, retrieved 16 March 2012
  5. ↑ Williams, Ollie (15 October 2009). "Keatings secures historic silver". BBC News.
  6. ↑ "GB men fail to qualify for 2012". BBC News.
  7. ↑ "Glasgow 2014: Scotland win first team gymnastics medal". BBC News. 29 July 2014.
  8. ↑ "Keatings wins second silver" – via www.bbc.co.uk.
  9. ↑ "Max Whitlock seals floor gold but is beaten in pommel by Dan Keatings". the Guardian. 31 July 2014.
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