Image source, Getty Images

Olympic gold medallist Rhys McClenaghan and Ireland team-mate Eamon Montgomery are through to the apparatus finals at the European Championships in Croatia.

McClenaghan put in an impressive routine on Wednesday afternoon, hitting a score of 14.400 which was good enough for fifth in qualifying, with the top eight advancing into the final.

The Newtownards man missed out on a medal at the Commonwealth Games, but enjoyed a good start to his bid for a fourth European title.

Italy's Targhetta Gabriele led the way in qualifying with a score of 15.200, with Armedian pair Khachatryan Mamikon and Manukyan Hamlet second and third, while Latvia's Mickevics Dmitrijs came in fourth.

"My fifth European final secured - looking forward to trying to improve on that score even more on Friday," McClenaghan posted on social media.

Belfast's Montgomery is through to his first European final thanks to his 14.033 score for sixth place on floor, 0.800 behind Dukhno Arsenii in first place.

James Hickey and Oisin O'Connell made their Euuropean senior debuts, while Adam Steele and Daniel Fox returned to international competition as Team Ireland finished 21st overall with a score of 226.496.

Both McClenaghan and Montgomery return for their final on Friday at 17:00 BST.

Nigel Ringland
BBC Sport Northern Ireland

Great champions don't always win but they have the ability to take a bad performance, learn from it and put it in the rear-view mirror.

Rhys McClenaghan hopes to do just that at the Men's Artistic European Championships in Zagreb this week.

After finishing sixth in the recent Commonwealth Games while debuting a new routine, the Olympic pommel horse gold medallist went straight back to training, aiming to correct what went wrong.

"It’s not forgotten about, there’s a lot of lessons I could take from the Commonwealth Games," McClenaghan told BBC Sport NI.

"Since the day I got back, I was back in the gym working on the mistakes - switching about some things and just ultimately trying to better the result for Europeans, but also still keeping the trajectory of improving the routine, testing out its construction."

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Image source, Getty Images

The European Gymnastics Championship takes place in Zagreb from 19-23 August.

Today, the Championships gets under way at Arena Zagreb this Friday, for the Apparatus finals for senior men.

Last year's European champion Eleftherios Petrounias of Greece will be looking to defend his title in what will be his fourteenth European championships.

Olympic gold medalist and World Champion Rhys McClenaghan will also be competing on pommel horse.

BBC iPlayer

Friday 21 August

Coverage available on BBC iPlayer from 17:30-19:30 BST and the BBC Sport website and app.

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