Date: Saturday 2nd April 2016 at Fleming Park Leisure Centre, Hants
Entries close: -0001-11-30
Entry ages: 9 years +
It was the weekend of 2nd and 3rd April and Cangaroos were travelling to Eastleigh in Hampshire for the first National competition of the season. Originally we had 7 entries to the various grades of the competition, but with pull-outs, this was reduced to 4, all competing on Saturday 2nd April.
First up were the boys, Abhi McDonald Marlow and Gabriel Strydom Green. Both had moved up an age group from last year’s successes, so they would be up against older, more powerful and more experienced boys in the 11-12 boys League 3 group. Both boys did excellent 1st routines and Abhi was in 3rd place after his set, with Gabe, just a few tenths of a point behind in 4th. Unfortunately, Abhi confused his routine for his set and failed to complete, but Gabe did well and registered 4th place going into the final and scored a healthy 50 ranking points for qualification to the League Finals at the end of the year. The finals were very close, but he was just piped to the bronze medal and took a very creditable 4th place.
Aliyah Kinnley and Sydney Kelly were competing in the 13-14 girls League 3 group, the largest group of the whole competition with 63 girls all vying for a ranking finish (top 24) and a finals finish (top 8). Aliyah and Sydney both performed excellently in their set routines, with Aliyah’s bets ever competitive score. Unfortunately a mistake in her 8th skill meant she couldn’t complete her 2nd routine and she finished the day in 57th place. However, Sydney had an excellent voluntary and qualified for the final in 7th place and earn valuable ranking points. A very tight final round saw Sydney slip to 8th, but a very good result nevertheless.