The Club Championships - 16th March 2008

This is a competition where, in the past, we have done very well, but this time was not as good - we only won 58% of the medals available to us! We won 11 medals (3 Gold, 5 Silver and 3 Bronze) out of a total of 19 that we could have taken.

WELL DONE everyone.

The highlights (and the lowlights!) were -

Emma and Maddison in their first competition tying for 2nd place in Regional 1 Women's Tumbling. Emma's first Run received the highest individual score.

At the same level, Megan and Meg, also in their first competitions, came a creditable 4th and 6th, and our three Juniors, Katie, Boston and Patricia finished 7th, 8th and 9th out of the 16 competitors.

At Regional 2 Women's Tumbling, Amy picked up a Bronze with a score almost two whole points above 4th place. Heather and Sophie came 5th and 6th, and Lauren had a nightmare Run 1 and sadly came 10th out of the 12 competitors.

There were several withdrawals from Regional 3 Women's Tumbling, but that still left 4 girls competing. Elizabeth was awarded a Silver medal initially, but after one of the scores was corrected because of a Coach supporting a move, it moved Lizzy into the Gold medal spot - more than a whole mark clear! Sadly, this was not changed until after the medal presentations, so she didn't get to stand on the top spot of the podium.

In Regional 3 Men's Tumbling, it was just Alex, an ex-Testwood gymnast and our Liam to battle it out. I had taught Alex to flic over 6 months ago, whereas Liam only started 3 weeks ago, so the result was a bit of a foregone conclusion. However we are really pleased that Liam now believes in his own ability enough to flic in public (I must also say thanks to Mark for his assistance in helping Liam).

In Regional 4 Women's Tumbling, Run 2 is where it all went wrong for Rachael. She had pulled a muscle in her thigh the week before and was suffering some pain, but bravely went through with her trio routine (more on that later). However, after a good first run, she found the flics in Run 2 were causing her real discomfort, but Rachael being Rachael, she was not going to pull out! Sadly half-way through the run, the pain got to her and she stopped and limped off.

But it doesn't end there - as upset and in pain as she was, she was not going to let it beat her and told me she wanted to do the run again, even though it would not be scored. I was worried about her leg, but she was having none of it and insisted, and the Judges allowed her to do it. And then she went on to do Run 3 as well - a glutton for punishment this one! Sadly the overall result put her 4th and out of the medals, which doubly hurt because she had won it last year - still there is always next year to redress the balance!

In National 1 Women's Tumbling, Catherine was just edged into third following three nice tidy runs.

On the floor, at Prep A Women's Pairs, Elizabeth and Rachell finished 4th, Sophie and Grace 5th and Vicky and Zoe 6th out of the eight competitors. All three pairs were inexperienced, so this was a good result for them.

At Prep B Women's Pairs, Emma and Megan won Gold by more than two whole marks, while Aimee and Heather picked up a Bronze, just missing out on Silver by 0.3.

Grade 1 Women's Pairs saw Kayleigh and Catherine build on their performance at the Prelims two weeks earlier to win Silver - only missing Gold by the smallest of margins, 0.05 - one wobble less and they would have won it!

The Grade 1 Women's Groups saw Sara, Rachael (her of the torn muscle) and Katy also follow up their Prelims performance to win Silver. Nicky, Melissa and Meg in the first competition as a trio together produced a good display but sadly the Judges were not as impressed as us and they ended up 7th.

And finally, at the highest level that anyone at Testwood has ever worked, Beth, Sammi and Kayleigh won Gold at Grade 2 Women's Groups. Beth and Sammi now have university beckoning, so this was their final performance for Testwood and what a way to finish! Well done girls.

So, WELL DONE Emma, Maddison, Megan, Meg, Katie, Boston, Patricia, Amy, Heather, Sophie, Lauren, Elizabeth, Liam, Rachael, Catherine, Rachell, Grace, Vicky, Zoe, Aimee, Kayleigh, Sara, Katy, Nicky, Melissa, Beth, Sammi and Kayleigh for making us proud again!

(Pictures will be on this site before too long)

to open the Prelims Results as a Word document.