200 of Britain’s best gymnasts from the 13 UK regions competed at the National Grade 4-1 Championships on Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th May at the Fenton Manor Sports Complex in Stoke-on-Trent.
The Melksham based Wiltshire School of Gymnastics qualified five gymnasts for the annual finals in Grade 4, 2 and 1; the only club in the county to have gymnasts represented at the Championships.
10 year old Violet Browne competed well in her first National Championships and had a clean competition in Grade 4. Nicole Parsons and Jasmine Frost represented the South West in Grade 2 and put in some good performances over the five apparatus. Unfortunately, a couple of nervous errors proved to be costly with the South West team narrowly missing out on the medals by a mere 0.2.
WSG’s Grade 1 gymnasts were the last to compete in the final round of competition on Sunday. After a shaky start on floor, both Jessica Daykin and Robyn Ellison settled down and put in solid performances on vault, bars, beam and conditioning to help the South West to the Team Silver medal with Jessica also achieving the Individual Bronze medal, a remarkable achievement in such a strong field of gymnasts.
Head coach, Rachel Levick-Kiely said, “The results that the girls have achieved are well deserved after months of hard work. It was great to see them represent the South West in such a high level competition.
“We now look forward to building on this success in our future competitions. A special congratulations to Robyn and Jessica on achieving team silver and to Jessica on finishing in 3rd place in the country.”
