Olympic star gives Arun gymnasts a lift

Gymnasts from the elite and Team Gym sections of Arun Gymnastics club proved every competition has a silver lining when they collected silver medals in three disciplines at the Sussex County Championships at the K2 in Crawley, watched by Olympic and Commonwealth gymnast Craig Heap.

The first was won by the Team Gym squad in the women’s regional level two competition. With medals awarded for overall position only, the result was dependent on the combined scores of three disciplines: trampette, tumbling and floor.

Charlotte Williamson, Lily Smyth, Anna Richardson, Chantal Mawbey, Sian Dale, Katie Twine, Katie Fenneymore, and Ashley Bingham put in an energetic trampette run which saw them placed first.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

They followed it with third-place finishes on the tumbling and floor which put them second overall.

Arun elite gymnasts Molly Evans, Ellie Pacey, Lucy Stephenson-Gill, Amelia Rishman, Olivia Kirkwood and Catherine O’Neill were all competing on day two.

In round one Molly was in the level five in-age competition and Lucy and Ellie were in level four out-of-age. Molly started on the bars and was placed seventh, followed by the beam which saw her sixth. On floor, a beautiful and graceful routine gave her an excellent score and joint second.

On the vault, two solid efforts placed her third and moved her up to a respectable fifth. Lucy put in two superb vaults to record a fantastic first with Ellie fourth.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

On the bars Lucy recorded fourth and Ellie fifth. Next Lucy completed a clean acrobatic beam to score another impressive first while Ellie kept up her consistency with another fifth.

The floor was their final discipline and Lucy’s steady routine saw her placed fourth and Ellie again finished fifth.

Lucy’s consistency gave her Arun’s second silver medal and Ellie, a year younger, finished a super fifth.

In round two Olivia and Amelia were in the level five out of age group. Olivia put in a stunning performance on the beam to record a superb 13.300 giving her first place.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

She followed that with a wonderful floor routine that saw her hit a score of 13 and place her second. With an impressive bars routine placing her second hopes were high and following tenth place on vault her impressive overall score of 49.150 was enough to give her second and Arun’s third silver.

Amelia, a year younger, gained valuable experience and finished in overall tenth.

The final round saw Catherine competing in the silver floor and vault competition for ten and 11-year-olds where again medals were awarded only for the combined score.

She competed on vault first where her two steady attempts put her fifth. She put in a wonderful floor routine that saw her post an impressive score that gave her first – but this took her up only one place and she finished fourth.

Related topics: