LAST summer, Amy Tinkler was watching on television as her friend and fellow gymnast Claudia Fragapane became only the fourth English competitor in history to win four gold medals at a single Commonwealth Games.

Last weekend, in Loughborough, 15-year-old Tinkler beat Fragapane as she claimed the all-around title at her first senior English Artistic Championships. For good measure, the teenager, who trains with the South Durham Gymnastics Club in Spennymoor, also won three individual apparatus medals, claiming gold on beam, silver on bars and bronze on the floor.

Having racked up some impressive international honours at junior level, Tinkler, who is a multiple former winner at The Northern Echo’s Local Heroes Awards, has handled the traditionally difficult transition to the senior ranks in style.

As a result, she looks certain to compete in the European Championships in Montpellier next month, and has a good chance of appearing at the World Championships, which will be staged in Glasgow in October. Beyond that, next year’s Olympic Games in Rio are suddenly a realistic ambition.

Given her youthfulness, it seems incredulous to think that Bishop Auckland-based Tinkler stands on the brink of global sporting triumph. Fragapane was able to rewrite the gymnastic record books at the age of 16, though, so there is no reason why her age and lack of senior experience should be a barrier to success.

“I watched Claudia as much as I could last summer,” said Tinkler, who first joined the South Durham club at the age of two because her mother was a coach. “She’s probably my best friend on the squad so it was amazing to see how well she did in the Commonwealths.

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“I was so pleased for her, and it was also a bit of an inspiration because I was watching her win all those medals and thinking that one day it might be me.

“We’re both very similar because our best events are the same – the floor and vault – and some of the training we do, we do together. Seeing her do everything that she did in the Commonwealths was incredible.”

From now on, though, Tinkler and Fragapane will be competing as equals. Tinkler freely admits she travelled to last weekend’s English Championships hoping to make the top ten in the all-around, but her runaway success, which came with a hugely impressive final score of 56.200, has transformed her profile at a national level.

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With Beth Tweddle, for so long the flag-bearer for British women’s gymnastics, having retired, the senior squad is going through something of a transitional spell, and Tinkler could be timing her development perfectly to secure a place at Rio next summer.

Unsurprisingly, the teenager doesn’t want to get too far ahead of herself, but having claimed a silver medal at the European Youth Olympic Festival in 2013, she already has experience of succeeding at a major multi-sport event.

“I’ve only just started competing in seniors so I don’t want to look too far into the future,” said Tinkler, who has already been selected for British Gymnastics’ Rio squad. “But I suppose Rio is a possibility and that’s really exciting.

“It’s crazy how fast the time goes because it doesn’t really seem like yesterday when I was just starting to compete in junior competitions, so I suppose the Olympics will come round before you know it really.

“I can’t think about that now though. Hopefully, I’ll compete in either the European Championships or the European Games this summer, and that’s going to be all that I’m focusing on over the next few months.”

Tinkler, who combines her training with school work at Durham High School for Girls, is coached by a combination of Nick Ruddock, Nicola Preston and Rachael Wright at South Durham Gymnastics.

The latter pair in particular have worked with her throughout her gymnastic development, and unsurprisingly there is a great deal of pride that a relatively small County Durham club has helped nurture a national champion.

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“It’s a pleasure to work with Amy every day,” said Ruddock. “She trains for around 31 hours a week, and has to juggle that with her academic commitments at her school, who have been really supportive right through her time there.

“She did fantastically to step up so well last weekend. We all knew the potential she had, but you’re never sure how someone is going to handle the step up to senior competitions, with all that entails.

“She’s an exceptionally powerful gymnast, and she’s really fast and dynamic, so the floor and vault really play to her natural strengths. She won medals in those at the Junior European Championships last year.

“We’ve had to upgrade her training in some of the other disciplines, and it’s probably the bars that don’t come quite as naturally to her. But she’s worked really hard on her bars work and really picked things up. The fact she won a medal on bars last weekend just proves how far she’s come.

“We’re all really proud of her and we’re looking forward to the rest of the year. Hopefully, this is just the start of even more success in the future.”