South West Grades 2012 and End of season report
Swallows gymnasts end the season with some great results
10 young gymnasts travelled to Plymouth last Sunday for their last competition of the season.
Competing for their Club were gymnasts taking Grades 14, 13 and 11 hoping to achieve a Pass at their relevant grade.
In the Grade 14 competition, the Swallows of Helston entered 4 young 8 year olds all hoping to perform to the highest level. The girls had to perform set elements as laid down by British Gymnastics. This was the first competition in which the girls had travelled to compete at a South West event and the pressure was on to make sure that they performed to their very best.
Yuki Cornish was the top scorer for the Club finishing on Vault with the highest score of all the Grade 14 performers. Yuki managed a top 6 placing out of 56 gymnasts competing at this level. Great solid performances throughout the competition! Charlotte Fidler, Madison Stanfield and Ashleigh Shovel all finished their competition with great performances. All four gymnasts were rewarded with Distinctions at the end of their competition.
Competing at Grade 13, the Club saw 8 year olds Isabelle, Zara and Emerald in action. Also, taking part for the Swallows was 9 year old Cara Jackson in her first competition outside the County. All four gymnasts took the competition in their stride with some very tidy performances throughout the event. Zara finished her floor routine in 3rd place with a great precision of skills. All four girls worked confidently to earn themselves Distinctions at the end of a very long competition.
In the Grade 11 competition 10 year olds, Harly Beale and Phoebe Jenkin were in action. The pressure was on the girls with all their Club mates taking Distinctions during the day. The girls began on Bars, and with two very competent routines were awarded with great scores. Phoebe ended her Bar in first place overall. To Beam, and the girls had to stay focussed to maintain their rankings. Both girls took to the beam and performed good quality of skills, despite both taking a fall during the competition. Floor saw the girls once again step up their competition with some very expressive routines. Phoebe finished the top scorer on Floor, with Harly in 5th. And finally to their last piece, Vault where both girls made excellent scores on 12.50, Phoebe and 12.40, Harly. At the end of the event the girls had completed their competition with Distinctions, with Phoebe in overall 2nd place and Harly finishing in 5th.
The weekend prior to this 11 year old Kai Cornish took to Falcon’s Academy in Barnstaple to take part in his final competition of the year. Kai was the South West Floor and Vault Champion in 2011 and was keen to emulate this performance and take the top spot for 2012. After a very long competition Kai was crowned the South West Champion for 2012 just narrowly by 0.03 of a point.
The girls were also competing in Bristol at the South West Alpha Factor competition against the best Clubs around the Region. In the Level 4, 10/11 yrs age group Megan Morris finished her competition in overall 5th place, Harly Beale took the Bronze medal for a great Beam routine and Phoebe Jenkin made solid improvements on last year’s competition. All three girls were ranked in the top 16 of 28 competitors.
In the Level 3, 11/12 years Heather Bolton made a consistent performance in taking the Bronze medal on Beam and the overall title of Level 3 Champion. Team mate, Maea Morgan also had a solid competition making many improvements from last year’s performance.
An extremely pleasing end to a busy period for all the gymnasts and the coaches at the Club. Head coach, Donna Jenkin said, ‘we are all extremely proud of the gymnasts for their efforts leading up to these competitions. Everyone did themselves, the coaches and their families proud. We are now looking forward to a bit of a rest leading up to the Christmas break. Well done to all the coaches who put a lot of effort into ensuring the gymnasts were in peak condition for the events.’
