There will be no birthday cake for Amy Tinkler when she turns 16 next week. Nor will she be unwrapping presents. Instead her focus is on a tastier and more tantalising prize: helping Britain’s women qualify for the Rio Olympics – and, along the way, making her first splash on the world stage.
The challenge facing Tinkler and her four team-mates when the World Gymnastics Championships start in Glasgow on Friday is simple, at least on paper. To book a ticket to Brazil next summer the team need to finish in the top eight of the women’s all-around competition, which begins with preliminary rounds on Friday and Saturday before the final on 27 October – Tinkler’s birthday. Having finished sixth in last year’s world championships in China, the team are convinced that is within their grasp. But with the stakes so high, Tinkler is happy to put her party on hold.
“It’s going to be awesome to compete on my birthday in the team final but given that I’ve put in so much work and our squad is so strong this year, I am going to wait to celebrate,” she says chirpily. “So there will no cake on my birthday and I’ll probably wait until the competition is done before opening my presents too.”
Earlier this year Tinkler won the British all-around and floor championships, beating the four-time Commonwealth gold medallist Claudia Fragapane and European bronze medallist Ellie Downie into silver and bronze after a series of nerveless displays. Given that Tinkler had just moved up from junior to senior level – a transition that often causes a temporary wobble as the young gymnast adjusts to a different environment and more challenging routines – it also marked her out as one to watch.
But she insists the prospect of facing the world’s best for the first time in front of 5,000 people at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow will not faze her. “I love big audiences, and with the home crowd the atmosphere should be amazing,” she says. “I’ll be a little nervous, but nerves usually help in competitions. You’ve just got to be able to not let them get to you.”
If Tinkler is among the top 24 gymnasts in the team qualification she will also qualify for the individual all-around finals and will need to be among the top eight in floor, her favourite event, to make the final. If all goes perfectly, she hopes to be joined in both events by her friend Fragapane, who not only inspires her but regularly makes her laugh.
“Claudia and I are both very similar because our best events are the same – the floor and vault – and we do some of our training together,” she says. “I look up to her so much, and what she achieved at the Commonwealths was incredible. So just to be around her is a huge help. She keeps team spirits up and she’s really nice. And when training is tough she always finds a way to make us laugh or calm us down.”
Tinkler has certainly come a long way since starting baby gym classes aged two and being put in the elite programme at the South Durham Gymnastics club at five. “By then I guess I could do most of the basic skills such as cartwheels, hand stands, forehands and it all progressed from there,” she says modestly. While her parents watched television she preferred to spend hours practising, back-flipping on every bed in the house and doing round-off flicks on a low beam in the front room. “I had far too much energy,” she says, laughing.
Tinkler entered her first competition at seven and by 11 she was representing Britain in junior competition for the first time. Now, having reached another goal by getting selected for the world championships at only 15, she is recalibrating her ambitions upwards again towards the Olympics.
To help with her push, Tinkler’s school in Durham is allowing her to stagger her GCSEs – she will take some next year and more in 2017. It means that she can toil without trouble for up to 30 hours a week, perfecting every spin, twist and flip. Not that she is taking anything for granted when it comes to Rio.
“We have to qualify first and only five British girls will be selected so it could be anyone,” she says, gently applying the caveats. Then comes a smile. “But like any young gymnast the Olympics has always been the dream.”
