Okehampton Flyers gymnasts achieved a gold medal and places in two other finals at the English Championships at Telford International Centre.
The English Championships is a national final run by English Gymnastics and British Gymnastics, and is against all of the clubs in England. To qualify, gymnasts have to achieve a place in the top 24 at the national English qualifying competition in their age group.
In the Silver double mini trampoline (DMT) event, Connie James and Esther Smith both performed stylish passes with good form in the qualifying round, with Connie in 1st after the qualifiers and Esther in 5th. After a tense final, Connie won the gold medal, and following an unfortunate error on DMT, Esther came 8th.
In the Gold DMT event, Mason Parker-Groves performed two well-executed passes to qualify for the final and came 6th. In Gold trampoline, he competed two good routines to come 15th.
Connie, Esther and Mason have all been working at their difficulty and also competed at the British Gymnastics (BG) National Age Group Competition this year, which is the highest level of BG competition in the UK. This is Connie and Esther’s first year of national British and English Gymnastics competition, and Mason’s second.
Their coach, Vicki Pritchard, said: “Well done to all of the gymnasts for their commitment and dedication in preparing for both the qualifying competitions and for the championships. Thank you also to their parents who spend a great many hours per week bringing the children into training, supporting them, and taking them to the competitions.”