RHYTHMIC gymnast Laura Halford won’t be putting too much pressure on herself ahead of next month’s Commonwealth Games.

The Cricklade performer scooped two bronze medals and a silver at the last Games, held in Glasgow.

Four years later, Halford’s focus is now firmly on Australia’s Gold Coast event and the 22-year-old revealed she’s enjoyed a positive start to the year.

“My training is starting to get much more consistent and I have had some really good results in competitions and some good scores,” said Halford.

“I am really happy to have that at the start of the year so I am quite confident the rest of the year should be successful.

“It does set the year off on a high and in the whole team we have a really positive attitude in training leading into the Games.

“We are just doing a lot of hours in the gym to try to perfect our routines and most weekends we will have controlled competitions in the gym to prepare us.”

Halford, who now trains in Swansea, picked up bronze medals in the individual ball and all-around events while a silver in the team event added to the youngster’s haul.

But the former Esprit gymnast admits competition could be tougher this time around with some additional expectation on her shoulders.

She said: “It was a really proud moment for me in Glasgow and it is actually quite hard leading into these Games.

“Going to Glasgow I had no expectations whatsoever, it was the first major competition for me so I was just going for the experience, whereas this time I have quite a bit of expectation on me, so it is quite tough.

“I would really love to get another all-around medal and hopefully improve on the bronze I got and add some individual final medals but I try not to put too much pressure on myself because it is a completely different field this time so I can’t expect the same result.

“I just want to go and do my routines as well as I know I can do them.”

The Commonwealth Games starts on Wednesday, April 4, and concludes on Sunday, April 15.