By Karen Braun
PARIS (Reuters) -It was all smiles, and a few happy tears, for Rhys McClenaghan as he struck gold on the pommel horse on Saturday at the Paris Games, earning Ireland their first ever Olympic gymnastics medal.
After McClenaghan, the twice world champion on the apparatus, glided through his performance and nailed his dismount, the emotional whirlwind began.
"I knew I went through my most difficult routine that I could do on this day and that's where the tears and the emotions came from," the 25-year-old said of the moment he landed, scoring a 15.533.
"Coming into this, Ireland knew that this could be our first ever gymnastics medal and I delivered under that pressure."
McClenaghan had held off what he described as the strongest Olympic pommel horse field in history, which included silver medallist Nariman Kurbanov of Kazakhstan and bronze finisher Stephen Nedoroscik of the U.S.
It was also a historic day for Kurbanov, who finished just one-tenth of a point back, as he secured Kazakhstan their first ever Olympic gymnastics medal.
"I think now everyone will know what gymnastics is, that Kazakhstan has artistic gymnastics and that our athletes can compete for the highest medals," he said.
Pommel specialist Kurbanov, 26, also acknowledged the depth of talent in the field.
"It was very nerve-wracking to get to the Olympics," he told reporters.
"I originally said it would be more difficult to get to the Olympic Games than to win an Olympic medal, because there were many more competitors at the qualifying competitions."
Nedoroscik finished 0.233 of a point from the victor and is taking home his second bronze of the Games after locking up third place for the U.S. in the team event.
"This has been my goal for so many years, so I'm just beyond honoured and excited," he said.
The rampant attention he has received on social media since clinching the team bronze has not gone unnoticed by Nedoroscik, 25.
"The amount of people reaching out and following me, you know, making memes of me, it has just been unbelievable," he said.
"I've just been consistently on top of this world for the past week now."
Briton Max Whitlock, the pommel horse champion at the last two Olympics, was edged off the medal podium by one-tenth of a point, finishing fourth despite improving on his qualification score.
Whitlock was aiming to win a medal on the apparatus for the fourth successive Games having collected a bronze in 2012.
(Reporting by Chang-Ran Kim, Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber, Karen Braun and Rory Carroll, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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