Bringing World Championships to Glasgow is proudest career moment, British Gymnastics chief executive claims

British Gymnastics chief exeutive Jane Allen says bringing the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships to Glasgow is her proudest achievement ©British Gymnastics

British Gymnastics chief executive Jane Allen says bringing the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships to Glasgow is the proudest moment of her career ahead of the event getting underway here tomorrow.

Allen presided over a superb performance from Britain’s gymnasts at the London 2012 Olympic Games, where the host nation took home a haul of four medals in the sport.

Louis Smith, who had become the first British gymnast to win an Olympic medal for over a century when he took pommel horse bronze in Beijing in 2008, claimed silver in London as well as team bronze in the men’s artistic all-around event along with Sam Oldham, Daniel Purvis, Kristian Thomas and Max Whitlock.

Whitlock clinched an individual podium spot by sealing third in the men’s pommel horse, while Beth Tweddle earned bronze in the women’s uneven bars.

Glasgow was chosen to host this year’s Championships ahead of Orlando in the United States and French capital Paris and Allen, who spent 12 years at the helm of Gymnastics Australia, says she values winning the race higher than anything else she has achieved in her career to date.

The International Gymnastics Federation awarded Glasgow the event in 2011 following a joint bid from British Gymnastics, Glasgow City Council, EventScotland and UK Sport.

“The London Olympics were amazing but anything associated to this great event was in place well before my involvement at British Gymnastics,” Allen said.

“For the bid for the 2015 World Championship we were up against Paris and the United States, so we knew it wasn't going to be easy.

“We worked hard to prepare a very professional bid with a fantastic group of partners from Government and the city of Glasgow and we kept hoping this would get us across the line.”

Allen is also targeting a team medal for the men when they perform in front of their home crowd and she says she hopes the women can reach the level set down by their counterparts in previous years.

Max Whitlock claimed individual and team bronze at London 2012 and Jane Allen is expecting another strong showing from the men in Glasgow ©Getty Images

“We have a fabulous men's programme, so I'd have to say the goal is to get a team medal, and I'm really looking forward to the competition to see if we can repeat the performance of 2012,” she added.

“I'm really keen to see our women's programme progress to the international standing of our men's programme and this is definitely possible under our national coach Amanda Reddin who is halfway through an eight year plan to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.”

The event in Glasgow will be the biggest edition of the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships to ever be held, with 594 gymnasts from 87 countries due to descend on the Scottish city.

They will compete for Olympic berths as well as world titles as Glasgow 2015 doubles as the first of two Rio 2016 qualification competitions.

The women’s qualification is due to take place on Saturday (October 24) with the men’s scheduled for the following Monday (October 26), where the top eight teams will secure the right to send five gymnasts to compete in the team event at next summer's Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Those countries who finish between ninth and 16th place will get a second chance of earning an Olympic spot at the Rio 2016 test event from April 16 to 19.