Her determination and dedication are phenomenal.”As a tot, Tweddle was always hanging around Or rather, hanging upside down, from banisters and bedposts Or vaulting over the sofa. So her parents took the seven-year-old to a local gymnastics club “to get rid of my excess energy” and 10 years on she has emerged as not only the cover girl for the British Championships programme but one of four featured personalities on the Games commemorative postage stamps.Determination is certainly the name of her game. The line between perfection and pain is as delicately balanced as a pair of feet on the beam, and she has had to bounce back after breaking an ankle three years ago.She has been coached by Kirby since 1997, making the two-hour round trip from her village home at Bunbury to Liverpool every evening after school – she is currently taking her A-levels – for a four-hour training session Her mother, Ann, and father, Jerry, do the chauffeuring. Her supportive parents, she says, were both “very sporty” and her brother James, 19, is an England Under-21 hockey international.Tweddle herself was a useful sprinter and long jumper before gymnastics totally took over her sporting life. Her talent for athletics has helped her to become a better gymnast because she can more easily absorb the vigorous training schedules devised by her coach “Gymnastics is a much tougher sport than it seems It may all look very pretty but it is about hard graft. The strength and the different skills you have to apply are as demanding as any other sport, probably more than most.”It is 30 years since Olga Korbut enticed the world to switch on to gymnastics, and despite the limited television exposure it receives outside the Olympics it has retained its allure, though the borderline between sport and showbiz is frequently obliterated, especially when floor exercises are performed to music.

“All That Jazz” seemed an appropriate theme for this particular element at Guildford. Tweddle conservatively chose a Greek number, a reminder, perhaps, of her achievement there recently and an omen for what might be in Athens in 2004, once the Manchester mission is accomplished.As well as the bronze medal on the bars in the European Championships she was seventh in the beam final and finished 14th overall. At a subsequent grand prix event in Germany, she took the gold and recently beat the top Romanians. So she is not just a pretty new face on the scene.She reckons she will stick at it, too, unlike the last British girl to be touted as having a world-class future. Lisa Mason, a Commonwealth Games gold medallist in Kuala Lumpur, who could have given Denise Lewis a run for the title of sport’s body beautiful, has given it all up to become a stunt girl and model.Tweddle, although curvaceous enough, has no such cheesy aspirations.

She plans to study biology and physics at university and then train to be a physiotherapist. But, now that the sport has become less rigid, she has a good half-a-dozen years ahead of her in which to twist, somersault, leap and dance her way to a golden future British sport could be swinging on a star.. Visitors to the Berlin velodrome these past few days might have been a little perplexed by the sight of the English cycling team in preparation for the Commonwealth Games. Some sleek track machines, for sure, and all the trimmings of a seriously professional outfit And one BMX bike. And one BMX bike.
Jamie Staff has not officially challenged the rest of the team to a showdown. He reckons that over half a lap, with the easier gears and the smaller wheels, his BMX would have a chance But no further.