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• Bajan gymnasts Kelly, Pilgrim celebrate small victories from World Champs outing

  Things may not have gone exactly how Barbados artistic gymnasts Olivia "Storm' Kelly and Anya Pilgrim would have hoped, but both still had some significant positives to boast from their FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Antwerp, Belgium.

  An historic Olympic Games qualification was the main target for the American-based Kelly and Pilgrim, and though they came up short in that regards, both took heart from their respective performances on Monday. 

  Pilgrim, who was making her World Championships debut, welcomed the fact that she was able to overcome certain obstacles among the minor successes worth celebrating.

  She tallied 46.500 All-Around, with scores of 13.100 on vault, 10.700 on uneven bars, 11.300 on the balance beam and 11.400 on her floor routine. 

  "I wholly enjoyed the experience. I hit all of my routines this time, even the skill that has been gave me some trouble at PanAms. So even though I did not have much preparation, I was able to do well, and I am happy with the outcome and the support I got from family and others on the island which makes me even prouder," Pilgrim told SportsMax.tv.

  "I believe my score was an improvement from PanAms but of course the judging is much tighter at an event like World Championships. So, again, I am delighted that I was able to hit my beam routine which has been my troublesome event after my injury last year," the Jenny Rowland-coached gymnast added.

  Given the fact that her inclusion in the Championships was somewhat last minute, the 18-year-old Pilgrim says her performance speaks volumes of her scope for improvement. 

  She pointed out that it will serve as a springboard for her to attain other goals and ambitions she has set for the season, particularly with her University of Florida team.

   "I am just going to soak up the atmosphere here in Belgium while I reflect on the experience before returning to Florida to resume training for my NCAA season. This season, the goal, of course, would be to win a National Championship with my team, and achieve some personal bests of my own," she declared.

  "And since I had to prepare my routines so early, I now have built up my endurance and stamina to complete routines on each event way before my season which will help me a lot. So now I can focus more on the details," Pilgrim shared. 

  For Kelly, it was her second appearance on the World Championships stage, and she beamed about the prospects, as she also expressed delight about improvements from last year's outing.

  The 17-year-old, coached by Ashley Umberger, had scores of 13.200 on vault, 11.666 on uneven bars, 11.933 on the balance beam and 11.700 on her floor routine for an All-Around total of 48.499 for 75th overall. She rose three places higher than the 78th position she achieved last year.

  "They took the top 14 girls, who are not on a team and the girl that placed 14th has a 49.965 and I finished with a 48.499 which means I basically just missed out. But even though I didn’t qualify here at Worlds, there are a few other opportunities I can use to qualify, but that depends on if Barbados will send me," Kelly explained. 

  "The experience was amazing overall. I’m not exactly sure what the plan is now, but if those opportunities are presented to me by Barbados, I will take them gladly. If not, I remain contented with how my elite season ended this year and I’m excited to start my new chapter in college next summer," she noted.

• Reece Topley ‘undercooked’ as England prepare for World Cup opener

  Reece Topley is ready to play the long game as he looks to put his World Cup woes behind him, but the seamer admits England’s interrupted preparations have left him “undercooked”.

  England get their title defence under way in Ahmedabad on Thursday when they face New Zealand in a replay of the 2019 final, but their lead up to that curtain-raiser has been less than straightforward.

  A 38-hour trip to their warm-up base in Guwahati was branded “utter chaos” by Jonny Bairstow, before their first practice match against India was rained off without a ball being bowled.

  They were able to get some game time in against Bangladesh on Monday, but their four-wicket win came in a game reduced to 37 overs and none of their bowlers delivered more than five.

  That is a light load to take into a flagship fixture, but for Topley simply arriving at the Narendra Modi Stadium fit for duty would be a success of sorts.

  Little over a year ago, just days before the start of the T20 World Cup in Australia, he tripped on a boundary sponge and was ruled out of a tournament England went on to win.

  “If anything I would say that I’m pretty undercooked, but going into a long tournament I don’t necessarily think that is the worst thing,” the left-armer said after tuning up with a three-wicket haul.

  “I feel like I’m just about to come into my stride, hopefully. It’s not about tearing in at the warm up game and impressing the right people, it is about delivering in the nine group games.

  “That last group game is still pretty far away so I feel like I’m where I should be, but there is still some work to be done for sure.

  “After missing the first game due to the weather it was good for us to be able to get out on the field and for people to get what they needed from the experience which is a positive outcome.

  “We’ve all been doing our training after having a couple of weeks without matches so it is nice to get back in the groove with playing in the middle and it helps to assess what you still need to work on before that first proper match.”

  Topley, who has lost long spells of his career due to injury problems, has spoken openly about the trauma of his late withdrawal from last year’s trophy-winning side and has been doing everything in his power to avoid a repeat. Mercifully, his luck has held so far.

  “I’ve been steering clear of any mishaps and playing it quite safe, and I’ll continue to do so ahead of the first game,” he said.

  “Obviously I don’t want any repeat of what was so gutting last year in Brisbane at the T20 World Cup. It was a tough period to go through and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone because these are the moments and the events that you dream of being a part of and playing your part in.

  “Hopefully I can play my part this year and make up for lost time if anything and make a contribution to England going all the way again. I’m looking forward to getting some game time, just as I was anticipating last year, and this time hopefully I can help the team retain the trophy.”

  There is stiff competition for places among the England bowling ranks, with Topley joining Chris Woakes, Mark Wood, David Willey, Sam Curran and Gus Atkinson in a well-stocked pace attack.

  England expect it to be a group effort in India, with a draining schedule that involves new venues and internal flights for every group match, but everyone has their eye on the opening match as the first signs of a pecking order emerge.

  “I think everyone is fighting for a spot in that final XI. You’ve just got to do all you can to put your case forward to feature in that side,” Topley explained.

  “I felt like I gave a good account of myself in the run out. Whatever 11 they end up picking, the whole squad is right behind each other, it is going to take a squad effort to be successful out here and the side that goes out in each match will continue to live up to the exciting way we play our cricket.”

• Magnificent Matthews says record chase gives Windies confidence boost ahead of third T20I

  Hayley Matthews continued her spectacular form this year with a brilliant knock to help her West Indies Women pull off a world record run chase against world champions, Australia, to tie up their three-match T20I series at the North Sydney Oval on Monday.

  Matthews smashed a 64-ball 132 including 20 fours and five sixes to help the West Indies successfully chase their target of 213.

  In a post-match interview, the all-rounder said this win will give her team a much-needed confidence boost ahead of the third and final T20I on Thursday.

  “A win like this at a time like this definitely means a whole lot to the team. Obviously, we’ve come down here with a lot of young girls in a learning, growing squad and to get a win like this against the best team in the world the way that we were able to do it is really going to boost our confidence and give us a lot of belief within the team,” Matthews said.

  The Barbadian shared in a spectacular 174-run second wicket partnership with former captain Stafanie Taylor who made 59 off 41 balls including 11 fours. Matthews heaped praise on the Jamaican for helping take the pressure off her at the crease.

  “I think when we needed 100 runs from about 50 balls, we looked at each other in the middle and said we could really get this if we keep going with the momentum. Kudos to the way she batted as well, getting boundaries on a regular basis and taking a lot of pressure off me so I’m really happy to have shared that partnership with a legend like her,” she said.

  Matthews, so far, has made 213 runs in two innings in the series after her unbeaten 99 in the first T20I. She was asked what has made her so productive this year.

  “Just working hard. I’ve played a lot of T20 and franchise cricket around the world and I’ve had the opportunity, at such a young age, to learn a lot about my game and the biggest thing for me has been my understanding and my technical work has been working really well,” she said.

  Matthews also insisted that there is no pressure on her side ahead of the decisive third T20I.

  “When we came to Australia we had nothing to lose at all. After the first game, what we did individually was look within ourselves and saw what we could’ve done better. That’s exactly what we’re going to do ahead of the next game. Yes, we won but we have so many areas we can improve in and so much learning that could take place as well,” she said.

  The third T20I begins at 3:05 am Jamaica time and can be seen live on SportsMax.