The Norfolk Academy
of Gymnastics
Unit 10
Rookery Business Park
Silver Street
Besthorpe
Attleborough
NR17 2LD
T: 01953 453309
Email: info@tnag.co.uk
Bethany and Lucy hold their own at Nationals
03/05/2009
Bathany Harmer and Lucy Jarvis were TNAG's representatives at the British Compulsory 4 and 3 championships held at Cocks Moors Woods leisure centre in Birmingham.
Bethany competed in her first ever national event as an individual on Saturday morning and had a tough draw, starting her competition on range and conditioning. Last to go of the group, the judges made her wait a very long time before she was able to start and the nerves got the better of Bethany who suffered a fall and failed to hold two of the required positions, scoring a disastrous 9.35. Bethany had a tough job to pick herself up for the remaining pieces but did so and, from that point on, performed almost faultlessly. She hit scores in the high 11s and 12s across the other pieces, including an excellent 12.45 for her vault (and she was definitely one of the smallest girls competing making the 1.15com vault a real challenge!) and 12.3 for a thoroughly rock solid beam routine. Bethany's total of 57.6 placed her 31st of the 63 competitors. With even just an average range score Bethany would have been inside the top 15 with ease. This demonstrates her massive potential for the future but also means she must work very hard to make the most of her training time in order that she can build on her promising start to her national career. Well done also to the very strong East regional team that took gold in the team event by an enormous margin of some 6 marks.
Lucy had placed an excellent second place at the regional event and so was part of the regional team for compulsory 3. Unfortunately the team was heavily disadvantaged by having only 3 gymnasts in the team, as only 3 had managed to pass the grade at regionals. This put extra pressure on the team members as they knew the team couldn't afford any mistakes. Lucy certainly did her job, going cleanly through her routines on all pieces with only minor wobbles and form breaks. She posted a good solid set of scores with particular highlights being 12.375 for her vault and 11.6 for a very enjoyable floor routine. Lucy's overall score of 54.475 placed her 26th overall. A big well done to Lucy for going clean in a highly pressured situation.
The weekend's results show that the Norfolk Academy girls are able to hold their own on a national level and also that there is lots of hard work still to be done by the girls and their coaches to make the next step up!
