Date: Sunday 28th October 2018 at Harlow Leisure Zone
Entries close: 2018-09-23
Entry ages: 7 years +
The first regional of the 2018 / 2019 season saw us journey to Harlow for the first ever competition at Harlow Leisure World. A total of 13 gymnasts, two coaches and four officials made the trip.
With pre-competition practice on Saturday complete it was Syd up first on Sunday morning. Her warm up routines were somewhat inventive and giving Ali some intense work with the mat. But when competition time arrived; in classic Syd style she pulled out two strong routines to finish 2nd and qualify and even set a personal best score for execution of 17.8 (joint highest in the club history).
After her was Ali in a tough group and despite scoring mid 8s could only muster 5th but achieved qualification and also set his PB for execution (joint 6th highest ever).
Next up was the ever improving Sam who had now jumped up to NDP4 in only her second competitive season competing in a team with Gemma and Amelia. She performed two solid routines to finish 11th and qualify - clearly afternoon tea is the secret to competition success!
Gemma and Amelia were up in the next flight and despite a bang on the arm Amelia pulled through her routine to finish 18th and qualify. Gemma made an error on her first routine and finished 20th. As a result the team of Sam, Gemma and Amelia took a respectable 3rd place in the event.
Following closely after Sam was Poppy competing for the first time at NDP3 and despite performing well made a small mistake in her first routine that cost her dearly as she finished 20th.
Alex Radford soared to new heights finishing in first place with his new routine and guaranteed qualification to the semi-finals - huge congratulations! His beaming grin and joyous celebration could be seen from across the hall and the club continues to be so proud of the progress he has made since returning from injury.
Lily 'Lolly' Carter was up next in NDP1 and zipped through both her routines to finish 9th and qualify for the semi-finals; a great result for her and we look forward to seeing her advance up through the club ranks.
She was followed by our second team entry of Ella, Ellie and Jo in NDP 1 over 13 girls. For Ellie and Ella this was their first regional competition and only Jo's 3rd. Their bubbling optimism carried them through some good warm ups but nerves got the better of them in the main event seeing them finish 21st, 29th and 30th but they will be back to put that right in the next qualifier. We are always incredibly proud of gymnasts competing for the first time and we openly encourage more people to give it a go.
It was at this time Graham Spence jumped into the fold as our afternoon marshal. After a brief rundown of what to do he quickly had the panel in line and they were running like clockwork. His son Benjamin also did excellently completing both routines to finish 2nd and secure qualification. Not a bad day's work for the family Spence.
Our last competitor of the day was Eleanor who performed brilliantly to complete both routines and secure 5th place with a qualification spot.
That brought an end to a busy day for all and we wish to pass our thanks on to Nicky and Jane for judging for us, Graham for being an excellent first time marshal and our coaches Scott and Ali for keeping everyone going safely through the competition.
Next up will be the Club Competition on Sunday 16th December.