Round Up of 2004

The Wiltshire School of Gymnastics had a very successful year in 2004.

INTERNATIONAL SUCCESS

In the first half of the year, two of our British Squad members, Jessica Coombs and Shannon Morse, were selected to represent GB in the “3 Country Meet” in Holland against Holland and Germany. The GB team outclassed the opposition – 5 teams in total –coming away with the gold, a full 6 points ahead of Holland’s A team and 10 points ahead of the Germans.

GREAT BRITAIN ESPOIR SQUAD

In November, Jessica Coombs and Shannon Morse, both of whom have been members of the World Class Start and Under-12 Squads for the past 3 years, were selected onto the 11-strong GB Espoir squad. Almost 20% of that squad now comprises gymnasts from our club which once again demonstrates the depth and breadth of our elite gymnasts and their coaches.

NATIONAL UNDER 12 SQUAD TESTING

The club will end the year with three of their gymnasts being tested for the National Under 12 Squad on 17th and 18th December at Lilleshall National Sports Cenlre. The gymnasts testing are 9 year olds Francesca Grout and Antonia Bates, and 11 year old Leanna Clarke who will be aiming to regain her place from last year.

SOUTH WEST ALPHA FACTOR

On Sunday 21st November the gymnasts travelled to Poole, Dorset for the South West Alpha Factor Competition. The club had a fantastic start with Kate Silvester taking the Level 4, 9 years title and Cup by over a whole mark, with team mates Hannah Grubb 2nd, Amelia Yates-Hartnell 5th, and Victoria Lewis joint 6th.

The youngest members representing the club also performed well in their 1st levels competition seeing 8 year old Charlotte Cullum achieve 8th place followed by Maisie Palmer 11th, Megan Gibson 16th and Erin Slater 21st.

The older level 4 gymnasts (10 + 11 years) from the dub continued the standard with Sasha Bennett 9th, Katherine Turner 11th, Laura Kendrick 24th, and Rebecca Press 25th in the toughest age group of the day.

The club was also represented at Level 3, 13 years+, Sophie Upton achieved 3rd place, Bethany Gibbons 5th place, Kirsty Dalrymple 7th place and Laura Holmes close behind in 8th place. The final level of the day was for Level 2. Again the Melksham based club was represented. Amy Woodruff took 3rd and the bronze medal, Olivia Grout was close behind gaining 4th place, and Amy Cowley achieved 8th place.

NATIONAL GES CHALLENGE CUP

The following weekend was another success with three of the clubs gymnasts travelling lo Aldershot on the Saturday 27 November for the National GES Challenge Cup. 12 Year old Olivia Grout performed excellently gaining her 3rd place overall. l3 year old Amy Woodruff took the bronze medal on the floor and Amy Cowley, also 13 years old, represented the club to a very high standard achieving 37th place out of almost 60 gymnasts.

WILTSHIRE COUNTY GRADES COMPETITION

Sunday 28 November saw the club host the Wiltshire County Grades Competition. This was a very long day with over 170 gymnasts taking part. The clubs youngest competitive members kicked off the competition taking their first County grade, grade 4, 6 Years Old. Livia Gauntlet from WSG took the gold medal by over 2 whole marks and achieved the only distinction for the age group. Club members Maria Bush and Emily Gray collected medals for second and third respectively. Also in the Grade 4, 6 years the club's Hannah Slater came 4th, Kate Slater 7th, Sophie Lamb 8th=, Katie Grubb 10th, Sian DeArth 11th, and Josephine Evans 13th. All the gymnasts passed their grade 4, as did the clubs Jessica Bush (l6th ) Georgia Pennock (3rd) Alice Burnside, (9th) Molly McLeod, (5th) Laura Gale, (11th) and Kitty Parfitt (14th) in the older Grade 4 age groups.

Round 3 was for gymnasts taking their Grade 3. Again the Club took a clean medal sweep in the grade 3, 7 years. Eva Parfitt took the title and achieved the only distinction for the group, closely followed by Ellie Gittins 2nd and Rowan Hey 3rd. Team mate Shannon Drew received a ribbon for 4th place as did Lauren Robinson for 6th place. Katherine Jamieson was 7th, Amy Neale 8th, and Georgia Harridane 9th. Again all gymnasts passed their grade 3, with Eliza Howell taking the title in the Grade 3, 9 years age group.

Round 4 was for gymnasts trying to achieve grade 2. The club had just 1 member taking this grade and 9 year old Emma Hill had an excellent competition taking 3rd place and passing her grade.

The final round was for grades 1 and Pre-Level. The club had gymnasts taking their grade 1, and 9 year old Serena Nelson-Hall took the gold medal with team mate Rhianna Andrew taking silver, and Leah Davis the 5th place ribbon. Again all the clubs gymnasts passed their grade.

Following recent success at National Finals 9 year old Francesca Grout from WSG has been selected by British Gymnastics World Class Start programme to attend an international training camp in Romania. She will be accompanied by Leanna Clarke who was selected in the 11-year age group. Leanna and Francesca will attend the 10 day camp from 10th to 20th January 2005. This follows hot on the trail of Jessica Coombs who attended her third such international camp in Romania at the beginning of the year – the only British gymnast of her age group to attend all three camps at the 9, 10 and 11-year age groups.

CHRISTMAS CLUB COMPETITION

Sunday 19 December saw the whole club involved in the Annual Club Championships held at the centre in Melksham to celebrate the end of the year. Results will be posted shortly.

ENGLISH NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

2004 also saw WSG hosting the English National Championships at which the English Team for the Commonwealth Games was chosen who then went on to win the Gold Medal. Congratulations also to Sam Bayley who competed in the Welsh Commonwealth Games Team who took the Silver Medal.

SIR ROLAND GIBBS

WSG was saddened to hear of the recent death of Sir Roland Gibbs. Sir Roland was a patron of the club and was instrumental in helping with fundraising and establishing the club. We all send our condolences to his family.