WHITELEY gymnast Kelly Simm helped England to the top of the standings at the midway point of the artistic gymnastics team event – and teammate Rebecca Downie says they are confident of turning silver into gold at the Commonwealth Games.

Simm, Downie, Claudia Fragapane, Hannah Whelan and Ruby Harrold all competed at the SSE Hydro last night on the vault and uneven bars.

Together England – 2010 silver medallists in Delhi – scored 85.390, just 1.508 ahead of reigning champions Australia with the beam and floor to come today.

Simm amassed 14.600 on the vault and Downie – who earned 14.683 on the uneven bars – admits the start couldn’t have gone better.

“The team is feeling confident, but we can’t control what any of the teams do, we can only go out there and do our jobs and see where that takes us,” she said.

Simm wasn’t actually part of the 2010 Commonwealth Games squad, but the 19-year-old is more than pulling her weight in Glasgow this time round.

Simm is the reigning British champion in the vault and even though she is making her Games debut her calmness has impressed Fragapane and the rest.

“The atmosphere is really good, we worked together as a team and really pushed for it,” said Fragapane.

“Hopefully we’ve got a chance of beating the Australian team and winning that gold this time. If we continue doing what we’re doing then we can.

Downie added: “We knew what to expect when we came in here, but we’ll come back in and be fresh.

“I think everyone will just go back and relax, but this performance has gone now, we’ll have to see what we can improve and keep our bodies fresh and enjoy it and hopefully we’ll be smiling at the end.”

Commonwealth Games England (CGE) leads and manages the participation of the Team England at the Commonwealth Games and Commonwealth Youth Games. We work with sports, Sponsors and Sport England to support the development of athletes and their sports, and to achieve success at Games-time.