Arun gymnasts shine among region's top performers

The regional event, with gymnasts representing clubs across Surrey, Sussex and Kent, was first and although there were medals and rosettes on offer for final positions, the score is more important as there is a qualifying standard in each group that determines a gymnast’s ability to progress to the next level.

A total of 21 gymnasts went to the competition in Guildford with six winning medals, eight winning rosettes and eight finishing with a score high enough to advance them to the next level.

The best Arun performance of the day came from Lia-Mai Greenwell (advanced girls 2-2005), who won silver for overall second place and scored an amazing score that put her up two levels.

Also winning silver and scoring enough to advance one level was Eryn Chown (intermediate A girls 1-2008) while in the advanced girls 2-2008 category, Daisy Bence finished second and won silver.

Three Arun gymnasts won bronze medals. Anastasia Janeiro (advanced girls 2-2006) and Tilly Forrestal (advanced girls 2-2003-2004) both scored enough points to progress to the next level with Brooke Sharpe finishing overall third in the intermediate A girls 2009 category. Arun’s rosette winners with high enough scores to move up were Lottie Matthews, fourth overall (advanced girls 1-2003), Cerys Dickinson fourth and Danielle Sycz fifth (advanced girls 2-2005) and Lily-May Holmes fifth (intermediate B girls 2-2006).

Final rosette winners for Arun were Grace Callaway, fourth (advanced B girls 2007), Billie Brown fifth (intermediate A girls 1-2006), Hannah Thomas sixth (advanced A girls 1-2007) and Romia Knowles sixth (intermediate B girls 2008).

At the Sussex Championships the ten gymnasts representing Arun had an outstanding competition and the club have three new Sussex champions. Arun took seven medals and all the gymnasts finished in the top six of their groups.

Arun’s top performer was Emilia Grochala, who put in an amazing performance in the bronze category-two women, 12-14 class. She posted a first-place vault and first-place floor, becoming Sussex champion and winning gold, but her floor score of 9.6 out of ten won the shield for the highest of the day.

Eva Rennie, in the same category, finished second on floor by a tenth of a mark and second on vault by just two tenths and won silver for overall second with her fantastic combined score only three tenths behind Emilia.

Arun’s other two Sussex champions and gold winners were Daisy Bence in the advanced cat-two women 8-9 category and Cerys Dickinson in the advanced cat-two women’s 12-14 group.

In the same group as Cerys, Lia-Mai Greenwell picked up silver while Anastasia Janeiro picked up silver in the advanced cat-one women’s 10-11 category.

Arun’s final medal winner was Isabella Woodward with bronze in the advanced cat-one women’s 15+ category. The other three Arun gymnasts, Grace Callaway, Megan Shepherd and Danielle Sycz all finished fifth in their categories.

Head coach Carolyn Millar and the rest of her coaching staff, who should all be applauded for their work in preparing the gymnasts so well, were extremely proud of all competitors.

Their hard work and determination in training really paid off and the results from these two competitions represent a big jump forward are a fantastic boost to the club.