Date: Saturday 22nd April 2023 - Sunday 23rd April 2023 at Medway Park, Gillingham
Entries close: 2023-03-01
Entry ages: 9 years +
Cangaroos gathered once again in Gillingham for the 1st national event of the 2023 season. With 8 entries (Lucas was competing in silver and masters) it was a biggest entry for some years.
Day one, the Saturday was for our silver gymnasts. And we started the day bright and early, with Lucas, Esme and Yacine all competing in flight 1, it was a busy start for our gymnasts, and for Tony, our Head Coach, as he was constantly running between panels to support the gymnasts in warm-up and then once again during their competition routines. A big shout out to the coaches from the other clubs who helped Tony with that timing conundrum, especially Mark from York Trampoline Club who covered Lucas for his 1st exercise as it clashed with Yacine's.
First to compete was Esme, in the 11-12 Female competition. This was the largest competition of the day with 53 entries, so it was going to be a tough task for her. but she completed two steady routines of good quality, scoring 35.71 for her first exercise and 40.38 for her second, giving a total of 76.09 and a comfortable 24th place.
Next up was Yacine, competing in his first National competition (not including the Team finals last year), in the 11-12 Male competition. There were some wobbles during warm-up, however, he pulled it out of the bag for the competition with a score of 35.97 for his first exercise and 39.56 for his second, giving him a combined total score of 75.53 which propelled him into 3rd place and won an amazing Bronze medal. huge congratulations young man, we're all very proud of your achievement.
The final competitor of that flight was Lucas, competing in the 9-10 Male competition. He had two good exercises, scoring 34.93 in his first round and 39.39 in his second round, giving a total of 74.32 and an excellent 6th place in a very competitive group.
It became a little more relaxing for the next two flights, with Freya competing next in the 9-10 Female competition. Another huge group of young ladies were taking part in the competition, Freya produced two solid routines scoring 33.26 in her first exercise and 38.25 in her second exercise, placing her 18th out of 36 gymnasts.
Last up for the day was Lily Carter, in another huge group of 52 gymnasts. Lily produced her two best ever routines for form, scoring an impressive 37.30 for her 1st routine. However, an error in her 2nd routine due to the inclusion of a second body landing meant she was marked out of 8 and only registered a score of 33.26. this gave her a total score of 70.63 and 41st place. That ended the first day of great competition.
Day two dawned bright, a much more leisurely start to the day as Lilia had to withdraw through injury, meaning we didn't have a 9.00am start but a 10.25 one.
First up was Lucas in his second competition of the weekend, competing at the highest level in England for his age group in the Gold 9-12 Masters competition. Lucas was the smallest and youngest by some measure, plus he was competing 3 new skills in his 1st exercise, the full twisting back, 3/4 front and ball out. With 22 gymnasts in his group it was going to be a hard competition, but he successfully executed both routines, scoring 31.97 for his first routine and an improved 38.21 for his second one. this gave him a total of 70.18 and 19th placing. A satisfactory first time out at this level, and hopefully it's enough to secure qualification to the English finals.
The afternoon saw Nicola competing for Cangaroos for the first time, Nicola joined us last year after moving to the Cambridge area and as a previous gymnast at a high level of disability competition at national level we were delighted to invite her to our competitive squad. it's been four years since Nicola last competed, and as she recently recovering from optical surgery, so this has been a challenge to be fit and ready. The competition consisted of just 5 competitors, but all were of a high standard and it was a great competition. With no Time of Flight used in disability competitions, the scores are based only on execution scores (form) and HD (horizontal displacement or travel). In Nicola’s first routine she scored a well with a round score of 25.40, despite a few wobbles towards the end of the exercise. An improved 2nd round saw a score of 31.00 for a total score of 56.40 and an excellent 2nd place and the Silver medal. A fabulous ending to a long weekend of trampolining.
As always, the Club would like to thank our officials, Jane Macrae and Jo Wardle for judging and officiating at the comp, without there support we cannot make an entry. We also want to thank the parents whose commitment to their gymnasts is a great testament to the Club and finally we'd like to thank Tony for coaching the gymnasts through the long weekend.
We look forward to a very busy June period with the National Age Group Championships on June 3rd & 4th in Telford, where we have 7 entries, followed the weekend after that with the 2nd English Qualifier, also in Telford and then the Sunday after that we are hosting the Regional Finals in Cambridge, with 22 Cangaroos Gymnasts entered for that competition.