RHYTHMIC gymnast Laura Halford has vowed to use the pain of the extinguishing of her Olympic flame to come back stronger after a disappointing showing at the World Championships.

Automatic qualification for the Games in Rio next year may have been out of the 19-year-old’s reach, but Halford went to Stuttgart hopeful of the chance to earn a place in the test events with a top 40 finish, just four places better than her efforts last year.

However, a bad first day with the hoop saw her hopes quickly dashed and she ended up finishing well down the field in 73rd, behind Stephani Sherlock, a clubmate at Swindon’s Esprit gym, who finished in 65th place in Germany.

“It didn’t really go to plan,” said Cricklade’s Halford who is preparing for life at university in Cardiff.

“On the first day I did my hoop routine and my routine was actually really good, but right at the end I just didn’t react fast enough and I dropped my hoop and it went out of the floor.

“The next day was ball and I did alright, but I was a bit shaky because I wanted to do well to make up for the first day.

“The next day was clubs and I was much happier with that, and then the final day was ribbon and it was a bit of a disaster.

“I dropped one of my big throws at the beginning of the routine, and then I managed to complete the rest of my routine quite well until the end when I just threw my ribbon right off the floor, so it was really bad and I was quite upset.

“It was really tough, especially after the first day because it was such a stupid mistake, it was really hard to pick myself up for the next day.

“I was really upset afterwards, but when I woke up the next day I was feeling a bit better and more confident, but after the competition I was just really upset.”

With no Olympics next year Halford, who won a silver and two bronze medals for Wales at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow last year, is preparing for a quiet season but hopes to use the time to hone her skills and come back stronger.

“I can only learn from it and I know now that I need to go back into the gym and work on specific things more,” she added.

“It kind of gives me the motivation because I want to do better next time.

“Although it was hard at the time, it is useful to have an experience like that.

“I will spend the time trying to improve my consistency first of all and try to improve my difficulty in my routine so that I won’t have an experience like that again.”

Halford will be in her last action of the year at the AEON Cup in Japan where she will represent Wales next month.