LAURA HALFORD came within one mistake of a clean sweep of gold medals at the British Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships at Liverpool’s Echo Arena last week.

Halford took the all-around title for the third consecutive year and the following day put in some scintillating performances to win the individual apparatus titles in hoop, ball and clubs. Only the ribbon gold escaped her.

The 19-year-old from Cricklade now hopes she can push on to become a thirty-something in the world rankings. She is currently rated the world number 44.

The Liverpool results confirmed the teenager’s view that she has improved considerably since her heroics at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games last summer when she collected three medals – a team silver and bronzes in the individual all-around and the ball.

All four of her routines on Friday would have been good enough for gold at the Glasgow Games.

“I felt much more pressure trying to win the British title for the third time – that was the key title I was aiming for – and I wasn’t happy with my scores on the opening day, despite winning,” admitted Laura.

“I was a lot more relaxed on the second day and that showed in the better scores.”

Laura, who trains with coach Deb Hows at the Esprit Club in Swindon, retained her British all-around title with a combined score of 58.200 after her four routines.

But the following day she raised the bar to 62.650 with a trio of gold medal performances in the hoop (16.050), ball (15.950) and clubs (16.000). Her slightly flawed ribbon display was still good enough to claim silver behind her Esprit team-mate Stephani Sherlock.

“I made a mistake towards the end of my ribbon routine but I had been very happy with it to that point,” said Laura.

“Glasgow definitely boosted my confidence because after competing in that massive arena I know now I can compete anywhere.

“I feel I have improved since last year and my coaches and everyone around the Welsh team agrees.

“I’m currently ranked 44 in the world but I think I can get in the 30s.”

Next stop for Laura is the Sofia World Cup in Bulgaria next week when she represents GB and she hopes to qualify for the world championships taking place in Germany during September.

At about the same time she will off to Cardiff Metropolitan University – handy for training with the Welsh gymnastics squad – to study Sport and Exercise Science.

And she admits she has another major target further on the horizon.

“Glasgow was brilliant and I would love to go to Australia’s Gold Coast to experience another Commonwealth Games in 2018,” she said.