Our 11 – 16 years and 12 – 18 years acrobatic gymnasts recently travelled to Riesa in Germany for the 2015 European Age Group Championships. Great Britain has long been an exceptional nation in acrobatic gymnastics and our youngest gymnasts proved the country’s winning ways are set to continue for a long time to come.
The strong British squad came away with a total of seven medals, two gold, two silver and three bronze. Qualifications took place over two days with partnerships performing both their dynamic and balance routines. In the finals, the 11 - 16 gymnasts performed either their dynamic or balance routines with the 12 – 18 partnerships performing a combined routine. Only one partnership per country can qualify for a final which unfortunately saw some British gymnasts miss out even when they finished second place to their teammates. This does show however Britain's great strength and depth in this discipline.
Several British gymnasts successfully made the finals with some fantastic results. Gold medals were won in the men’s pair 11 – 16 balance final by Sam Large and Hector Kinghorn with 28.200 and the women’s 12 -18 group Katherine Williams, Scarlett Wright and Tabitha Dawson with 27.950.
There were silvers for the women’s 11 – 16 pair Olivia Proctor and Jessica Gledhill who performed their balance routine to score 28.000 just .05 away from the gold and the men’s 12 – 18 group, Aidan Lim, Alberto Cardillo-Zallo, Alexander Papworth and Christian Cox scoring 27.800.
In the mixed pair 11 - 16 category, Finlay Cochrane and Kirsten Owen took the bronze scoring 27.300 for their dynamic routine. Also in this age group, Megan Smith, Leah Munday and Sophie Reynolds also performed their dynamic routine to score 27.650 and take the bronze. In the women’s pair 12 – 18 age group Marlena Krolicze and Harriet Cowperthwaite took home the bronze medal with 27.550.
Congratulations to all gymnasts, coaches, clubs and officials on such fantastic achievements.
Full results.
The 2015 Acrobatic European Championships continues, with senior and junior qualifications beginning on Thursday 1st October. Good luck to all those competing.
