Third British Title for Brewer

Double Commonwealth Games gold medallist Ross Brewer won his third all-round title at the British Championships held in Wigan (24 & 25 Sept). Brewer who trains at the Sutton School of Gymnastics, won the event with a score of 51.45. Danny Lawrence (South Essex) won silver with 48.90 and David Eaton (Hinckley) scored 48.30 for bronze.

A First Class Honours graduate in mathematics, Brewer works one day a week as a bookkeeper in his father’s accountancy firm. Cuts in lottery funding last year, have meant Brewer has had to reduce training hours in order to supplement his living expenses. The criteria for lottery funding is now based on Olympic results. At the World Championships in 2003, no British men qualified for the Athens Olympics and as a result the men’s gymnastics lottery funding was stopped.

Brewer’s intention is to continue training and competing at World and European level until the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. His aim is to improve on his performance at the 2002 Commonwealths where an error in the pommel final cost him an individual medal. After this he will decide whether to continue training towards an Olympic berth in 2008.