The TeamGym Squad really have to travel for competitions. Three teams were entered for the Northern Qualifer in Edinburgh. The Regional team performed very well in their first competition. They competed all their pieces with hardly any errors.

The National 3 Team achieved a bronze medal spot and qualified for the National Finals with a consistent score.

The National 2 team had had a difficult time with injuries but managed to achieve a final place by a narrow margin.

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The National Finals at Gloucester saw the club represented by National 2 & 3 Teams. Both teams performed well but found that even improving their score from the qualifying round this was not enough to put them in with a chance of a medal. As in all areas the amount of training time clubs spend training makes a massive difference when competing.

The squad in October attended the Scottish Friendly TeamGym at Grangemouth Sports Complex, Edinburgh. The Junior Squad performed really well in all events and were awarded the gold medal, just pipping South Durham by a mere 0.05.

A great event was rounded up with a quartet of gymnasts competing Senior Micro Event. The mixed team of Vicky Hendry, Leoni Moran, James Burgess and Stephen Finch. The group competed one Tumble and one Trampette run, performing several new moves to win their section.

The final competition of the year took place very close to home at Goole in November.

We were represented by 2 teams at this event. The National 3 group and again the Senior Micro Team.

First off were the National 3 team. They put in a very solid set of performances on all 3 pieces achieving the highest marks on floor 7.90 and trampette 6.70 to give them first place overall. (pic add).

At the end of the day the Senior mixed team were on. After a long wait Vic unfortunately had a nose bleed which led to the remaining 3 gymnasts having to take over her runs. So a special thanks go to Steven and Leoni for there excellent timbling and trampette work which resulted in them scoring 7.30 on both pieces and gave them the gold medal overall.

This was a great way to finish of the competitve year.

Thanks go out to all the parents and supporters of the squad especially those who have helped transport the trampette up and down the country.

TeamGym offers things no other area can.

Briefly it gives the gymnasts a chance to work as a team in 3 different areas:

• Floor
• Tumbling
• Trampette

Anyone interested in TeamGym can now obtain all the information they need from
the following web site - www.teamgymuk.com

The spirit of TeamGym is a wonderful experience and brings a whole new perspective to enjoying sport.

British Finals
Gloucester 2nd May 09

Both groups set off for this competition after putting in some hard work in training. As usal first up were the National 3 group. They performed well on all pieces improving the scores on every piece despite one or two errors. Floor 7.5, tumble 5.6, trampete 6.9 (which equalled the third highest score of the day on this piece). The final score of 20.00 put them in a creditable 5th place for the day. Well done.

Next up were the National 2. Again the difficulty had been increased. Unfortunately it was not to be this day. Trampette was first and in what is normally one of the strongest areas various mistakes occured which resulted in a low score. Unfortunately as a group they never recovered from this poor start and ended up with a score of 21.10. So it is back to the drawing board and a change in mind set for the future along with more focussed training!

Northern Qualifiers
Meadowbank Sports Centre, Edinburgh. 7th March.

Two Diamonds teams made the trek north of the border to compete in the Northern National Qualifiers.

After an early start, the National 3 team (Primary) was the first team to perform. They started off on floor with a routine that had previously been used at the Goole Open Competition in November. A smooth performance ended up with the third highest score of 7.40.
Their second piece was tumble. After what could be described as an ‘interesting’ run-up to the competition on this apparatus, the team scored a fairly low 5.45.
Finally they moved onto the last piece of apparatus (trampette) where they made amends and achieved the highest score of the day with 6.90, which was an excellent score for them.

These scores earned them 3rd place overall and qualification into the national finals; due to be held in Gloucester on May 2nd. From this competition the gymnasts can see the areas that need to be worked on if they are to compete for the medals nationally.
Overall a very good achievement for the group.

Next up were the National 2 team (Junior). During the competition preparation the team members had not been very confident in their own abilities. As a result of this the difficulty of their runs was slightly downgraded but the key was to ensure that all moves were landed and the lines were good.

They started off on trampette. A solid performance with very few errors made sure that they got off to a good start with a score of 6.95.
The next piece was floor. This had been a little troublesome in training for many reasons and had only been performed by the whole group three sessions before the competition. However on the day (despite the routine being ‘rough and not polished’) they were awarded the highest score of the day, 7.35. An excellent score!
Tumble was the final piece. A clean performance on all runs ensured that a good score would be achieved, and 6.85 was the second highest tumble score of the day.
This final score also put the National 2 team into 3rd place and they too have qualified for the national finals in May.

Both teams performed very well and were a credit to the club. All the gymnasts have been buoyed by the result and have re-entered the gym under no illusions about how much hard work is needed to perform well in the finals.