Date: Saturday 3rd June 2017 - Sunday 4th June 2017 at English Institute of Sport, Sheffield
Entries close: 2017-05-02
Entry ages: 9 years +
On the weekend of 3rd & 4th June, British Gymnastics held its second qualifying event for the British Championships in Sheffield at the prestigious English Institute for Sport.
Injury and GCSE exams had reduced the entry to just two Cangaroos gymnasts, but we had high hopes for good results and we weren't disappointed.
First up on Sunday was Abhi Marlow-McDonald, competing in just his 2nd event at NDP 8 in the Boys 11-12 age group. At the previous qualifying competition, Abhi had completed all his routines, but the competition had been of a very high standard and saw him take 9th place. Just 5 weeks on saw Abhi complete all 3 routines and take an extremely credible 7th place. His best scores have him ranked 8th in Great Britain at this level for his age and although he didn't get the qualifying scores for the National Finals this time, we're hopeful that the top 8 will receive wild card entries to those Finals.
Next up was Zach Goggin. Zach had placed 8th in the previous qualifier and was hoping for a big improvement. Well he didn't disappoint. Three strong routines saw him take his first ever medal at a National competition, taking the Bronze in a very competitive field. Again, unfortunately, Zach also didn't achieve the qualifying scores required across all three rounds. He has however ranked 8th overall in Great Britain and as with Abhi, we wait to see if wild-cards will be offered to the top 8 gymnasts in the field Four Cangaroos have competed this season at the NDP 8 level, and we have come away with Silver for Matt Burson, Bronze for Zach Goggin, 5th for James Able and 7th for Abhi Marlow-McDonald. We wait to hear from British Gymnastics on whether any of them have qualified for the Finals in Telford in July.
Cangaroos are travelling to Cardiff for the first League event this coming weekend, followed by the Regional Team Finals in Birmingham and then the 2nd League event in South Shields the weekend after. So a busy few weeks of competition for our gymnasts in June.