Date: Saturday 16th September 2023 at Utilita Arena
Entries close: 2023-08-15
Entry ages: 9 years +
Following an intense year, the Regional and National seasons came to a close on two succeeding weekends in September.
Following qualification from the National Age Group Championships, Sara Shaw and Nicola Bannister prepared to compete on 16th & 17th September in Birmingham. Nicola had fought back to fitness following a severe ankle injury 8 weeks prior to the event, but tragedy struck, when Covid once again reared its ugly head and Nicola was forced to miss the competition through a Covid infection. Sara, who lives and trains for much of the year in Singapore, training with Cangaroos when she comes back to the UK for the summer, qualified ranked 10th from the national Age Groups, and we had high hopes for a positive end to the season.
A good experience at orientation on the Friday evening has us all buzzing for Saturday’s qualifying rounds, and we all went to bed happy. Saturday morning came around, and nerves were setting in. This was the biggest event Sara had competed at, and the nerves were showing in warm-up. Out onto the floor for competition in front of a crowd of enthusiastic supporters, both Jess (her Singapore coach, who had made the trip with her) and Tony were encouraging her and trying to keep the nerves down.
Her 1st exercise was satisfactory, an error on skill 3 meant she had to travel from the very edge of the bed, but she managed to recover well and although Sara was disappointed, she did manage a credible score of 38.43. Her 2nd exercise was going much better, unfortunately, a slight under-rotation on the 10th skill meant her landing was unsteady, she couldn’t control it was forced to somersault out, leading to a penalty from each judge. This meant her score was reduced, scoring 44.37 and giving a final score of 82.80 and a final ranking position of 29th out of 44 gymnasts. In our sport the smallest margins can make all the difference, and in these routines, this was the unfortunate outcome. Here’s hoping for a better performance next season.
Although it was a disappointment after her successes earlier in the season, just qualifying through to these finals is an incredible achievement, thousands of gymnasts compete every year to reach the British Championships, and in her very first appearance at the event, Sara managed a very credible 329th place in all of Great Britian. She and her family should be very proud, we certainly are at Cangaroos and at Singapore Trampoline Academy.