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Tweddle shines in warm up

26th July 2012, 06:50pm

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Beth Tweddle: Impressed in training

Beth Tweddle: Impressed in training

Beth Tweddle is brimming with confidence and ready to raise the roof at the North Greenwich Arena after producing a near-perfect bars routine in podium training .

The 27-year-old three-time world champion showcased her spectacular highest scoring routine while one of her main rivals for gold, American Jordyn Wieber, practised in the same session.

An Olympic medal is the only thing missing from Tweddle's impressive role of honour which also includes six European and seven British titles.

London 2012 will be her last chance to change that, starting with qualification on Sunday, and the City of Liverpool gymnast pulled out all of the stops on Thurday with a bars performance packed with complexity and scoring a 7.1 difficulty rating.

"If that was Sunday's performance I would be over the moon," Tweddle said.

"I think the judges wonder what I'm going to do when I'm on the bar because I do have two different versions of the routine, but we're just going to play it safe with the team and see which one they need me to do. Obviously if I progress then I can make the decision.

"I've tried out a couple [of routines] here today, both of them I'm really happy with, so I've got to leave it up to my coaches to decide what they want me to go out with.

"Every day I've been doing both routines so it's not like it will be a major issue. I have competed [with] both at different competitions."

Tweddle is also competing on the floor, although she admits the level of her performance is not up to her usual standard after recovering from knee surgery.

The Johannesburg-born gymnast missed out on this year's European Championships after undergoing keyhole surgery and she still sleeps with an ice machine strapped to her leg.

However, her floor routine is still set to dazzle the British crowd, with Tweddle showing off her tumbling to James Bond theme "Live and Let Die."

"Floor is still not up to what I would be happy with but I made the conscious decision after my knee surgery between me and my coach to just get me here I needed a floor routine that I was happy with," she said.

"I haven't had time to get the full difficulty for the last tumble but at the end of the day at least I'm here competing and 12 weeks ago I was worried I wouldn't be."

There was a slight injury concern with 15-year-old Rebecca Tunney during the session after she landed awkwardly after her first tumble in her floor routine.

The Olympic debutant returned to the floor to practise her routine but left out most of the tumbling elements before continuing with the vault and bars.

Imogen Cairns, who will compete with Tweddle, Hannah Whelan, Jennifer Pinches and Tunney in Sunday's qualifications, played down the problem.

She said: "She tweaked her ankle a bit. She's got a few more days so she'll be fine.

"We don't want her to go and pound out some more [tumbles] so she'll be fine."

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