The Norfolk Academy
of Gymnastics
Unit 10
Rookery Business Park
Silver Street
Besthorpe
Attleborough
NR17 2LD
T: 01953 453309
Email: info@tnag.co.uk
Regional Grades Weekend 2010
15/03/2010
Norfolk academy girls well represented at the Regional Grades Competitions
The weekend saw the regional round of the national grades and compulsory levels competitions at Ipswich. The Norfolk Academy were very well represented with ten gymnasts competing at various levels across the weekend.
Charlotte Taylor, Grace Ashworth and Sienna Sprong competed at national grade 8 amongst a large field. The girls had the unfortunate task of starting their competition on beam where both Grace and Charlotte made uncharacteristic errors. Both girls recovered well and scored strongly on the other pieces to pass the grade and finish 13th and 14th respectively. Sienna held her nerve on the beam and continued to put together a very strong set of scores to finish in equal 3rd position, collecting a bronze medal and booking herself a place in the East team for the national finals in April.
Lucy Jarvis took her place in a strong field contesting Grade 7 and was one of the classiest gymnasts in the competition. Lucy posted a consistently high set of scores with just a slightly low bar score pushing her down out of the medals and into fifth place where she will be reserve for the National Finals.
Sunday saw the girls competing at the elite grades have their competitions. TNAG had Olivia Syder, Eleanor Parsons and Caitlin Baker taking part at compulsory 4. This is the first elite grade where the girls can progress to a national final and so was the girls’ biggest competition to date. All three girls performed very well. Olivia Syder had a very consistent competition to place an excellent 6th overall, with Eleanor just behind in 7th, hampered slightly by a mistake on her range. Caitlin showed one of the highest scoring range routines of the day but made a costly mistake on beam which pushed her ranking down to 11th. Most importantly, however, was that all three girls easily attained the pass mark of 47.5 and 9.5 on range and conditioning and so can compete for TNAG at the national finals in Birmingham in May.
The afternoon session saw the turn of the youngest competitors of the weekend in the compulsory 5 event where Emma Hill and Grace Luckhurst took part for TNAG. For both this was their first major competition. Grace scored solidly apart from a struggle on the bars and placed 7th. Emma had an excellent competition, performing all of her routines to the best of her ability to cross the magic 60 points barrier and place 5th overall. The club has very high hopes for these young gymnasts for the future.
Bethany Harmer took part in the compulsory 3 competition which was the highest grade on show at the weekend. The East has an incredibly strong batch of gymnasts in this year group and the standard was incredible. Bethany held her own and posted the second highest vault and third highest floor and range scores of the competition. She suffered a fall on bars and had a hold not credited on beam which just knocked her off the rostrum into fourth place but her total of 60.825 is higher than the winners have attained in many regions. Bethany will go forward as part of a very strong East team to the national finals and is now eligible to take her Compulsory 2 “elite grade” next year. W
ell done to all of the competitors and coaches and thank you to all of our magnificent supporters!
