Olympic champion Rhys McClenaghan said his routine “didn’t go to plan” as he finished sixth and missed out on a medal in the men’s pommel horse final.

McClenaghan scored 13.000 with his routine at the Glasgow International Arena as he failed to earn a medal at the Games for the first time after claiming gold in the Gold Coast in 2018 and silver in Birmingham four years ago.

The 27-year-old had qualified third with a score of 14.500 and the expectation heading into the final was that he would become Team Northern Ireland’s third medallist of the Games and potentially claim their first gold.

But it all went wrong for the Newtonards man, who nearly came off the pommel horse at one stage towards the end of his routine that did not look right from the off.

His difficulty (5.200) and execution (7.800) scores plummeted from Friday’s qualifying and he had an appeal for his score to be reviewed rejected.

“I didn’t have a great start. They didn’t count the first skill so that dismantled the whole routine. I tried to push through the rest of the routine and it was going well until the end and the leg splits happened,” he told BBC Sport NI.

“If I had have went start to finish, if that first skill had been counted, and to the untrained eye, it is probably nothing, but the judges don’t like to see that.”

Canada’s Jordan Carroll, who went in the first section of the final, set the bar high with his tremendous routine that scored 15.00 as he won the gold medal.

Scotland’s Reuben Ward, who claimed gold in the men’s all-round final, produced a big score of 14.966 to take silver while Cameron Lynn scored 13.833 and claimed bronze much to the delight of the large Scottish contingent in attendance.

Adam Tobin, who was part of the England team that took silver, slipped and fell off at the first attempt and scored 12.066 for his second attempt as he finished eighth.

Losing out in Glasgow brings to an end McClenaghan’s remarkable run of five successive major championship wins after he claimed golds in the Worlds in 2022 and 2023, Europeans in 2023 and 2024 and culminated with the Olympic win in 2024.

It is the worst score he has recorded this year after registering 13.466 and 13.900 in the two World Cup competitions in Azerbaijan and Antalya as he made his comeback from injury earlier this year.

Despite his obvious frustration, McClenaghan was philosophical in reiterating this is only the start of a new cycle with the World and European Championships still to come this year and the ultimate goal of retaining the Olympic gold in Los Angeles still two years away.

“It’s another stepping stone to what’s to come. European Championships in a couple of weeks, World Championships in October and then we look to LA Olympics. This is the stepping stone,” he added.

“If I had have come away with gold medal today it also would have been a stepping stone and I’m sure I would have taken as many lessons. It didn’t go to plan.

“I’m mentioning these mistakes and they’re the finest of margins in this sport. It’s going to happen eventually, if it doesn’t happen in training it will happen in competition.

“I treat them as the same, I’m going back to the gym to progress even more.”