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Interview: Welsh gymnast Clinton Purnell

Sports Mole catches up with Team Wales gymnast Clinton Purnell after today's first half of the men's team final in Glasgow.

Since 1978, no country apart from Australia, Canada and England has won a medal in the men's team artistic gymnastics event at the Commonwealth Games.

One nation trying to change that this year are Wales, and earlier today they completed the first half of the final with a score of 122.339, putting them just over three points behind Canada in the bronze medal position.

Clinton Purnell was Wales's leading scorer and currently has the fourth-best total in the individual all-around qualification standings.

He spoke to Sports Mole after today's rotation and said that he and his teammates Jac Davies, Iwan Mepham, Harry Owen and Robert Sansby pulled their best out of the bag.

Clinton Purnell of Wales competes on the rings during day one of the Commonwealth Games men's artistic gymnastics team final at Glasgow's SSE Hydro on July 28, 2014© Getty Images

How did you feel after your opening half of the team final?

"Yeah I feel that we're in a pretty good place for tomorrow so I'm just hoping that we can keep it up."

You scored better than the defending champions Australia in your rotation. Were you expecting that?

"We weren't expecting it, but we knew that it was possible. We knew that we had to do our absolute best, go perfectly and be as clean as possible, but that's what we've done. We've done our best routines today.

"Given all the build-up to this, we couldn't have really asked for more. We're really happy with that."

You've been to a Commonwealth Games before in Delhi. How does this compare?

"The arena's a little bit smaller actually, even though it's still massive. It kind of makes it more cosy though and there's a lot more crowd participation here. They get behind us really loud on every single move. It's brilliant."

There seemed to be a really good vibe in your team there, you were all cheering each other on every time?

"Yeah definitely. It started well for us and that pushed us on throughout. From the very start, each of us was right behind each other. We're really happy."

The second half of the team final takes place tomorrow. England are the current leaders ahead of Scotland and Canada, with reigning gold medallists Australia fifth.

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Pascal Lemesre
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Wales's Frankie Jones with her gold medal for winning the individual ribbon final on July 26, 2014
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