Four younger partnerships from Honiton Gym Club have shown that they too can match the best that the rest of the UK has to offer, by taking three silver medals and one fifth place in the national finals of the preparation grades in Southampton.
After beating groups from across the region to qualify, the four pairs went on to represent the South West in the inter-regional tournament, and all four pairs upped their performances considerably.
Twelve-year-old Megan Moore and eight-year-old Morgan Bolten-Williams were just beaten into second position after leading the way for most of the day. The girls scored the second highest marks in the whole competition for the artistic and technical content of their routine. This ensured their score was selected as one of the three to contribute to the South West total, helping the region finish third in the team competition behind the south and London regions.
Buster Tutcher (10) had a busy weekend, winning the silver medal with both his men’s pair team-mate Ashley Wallis (also aged 10) and mixed pair partner Charlotte Beviss (eight). Both pairs put in fantastic performances, greatly improving on their scores from the preliminary events earlier in the year. Ashley and Buster narrowly missed out on becoming British champions by just 0.14.
In addition to the medal winners, a strong performance was given by the new pair of Josh Cox (12) and Matt Simpson (10). This was only Josh’s second competition in acrobatic gymnastics and a greatly improved performance left them fifth, just 0.2 from the bronze medal.
Their coaches – Pam Burns, Hannah Dacre, and Louise Garman – were thrilled with the performances and are very proud of the gymnasts. Pam said: “Many of these gymnasts are very new to competition and, despite more than 140 gymnasts competing, all seven Honiton competitors remained unfazed, performing the routines to the best of their abilities. The exceptional results are the culmination of the hard work they have put into their conditioning, choreography, tumbling, and acrobatic gymnastics work.
“Each one of them will now continue to work hard to learn new and ever more impressive acrobatic skills for their next competition at the South West Regional Championships in July.”
The seven gymnasts that made it to the national finals train two to three times per week in the Acro Squad and Club Acro groups at Honiton Gym Club. Gymnasts can move up to these groups from the Gym-Crazy Kids and Recreational sessions when they that show that they have the potential and ambition to perform in acrobatic gymnastics competitions.
James Reddy, 07967 835947; e: [email protected]
