On Wednesday, a number of Year 7 pupils travelled to Ladybridge High School to take part in the annual gymnastics competition. The competition was split into four categories that the girls could perform in beginners, novice, intermediate and advanced. The category you perform in depends on the number of hours you train as a gymnast for. We had three in novice and two in intermediate. We were a team of five so it was quite intimidating to enter the performance arena against teams of twenty plus girls. However, the competition was judged on individual performance so it was irrelevant how big the teams are.
We walked in confidently and got straight on with the warm up. There were 137 gymnasts in the hall all eager to perform two disciplines: floor and trampette. The first to perform were our novice gymnasts Abbie Murphy, Jess Hill and Maria Ehiamen. They started their competition on the floor; they had to perform a routine of six agilities. The students all performed really well and showed great aesthetic appreciation in their routines. Unfortunately, they were competing against girls in year 9 and 10 and there were 38 girls in their category alone. Our intermediate gymnasts, Faith Peake and Maria Marsden-Price, went off to compete on the trampette. For this discipline they had to perform a front somersault. They both landed them well and impressed the judges. They then went across to the floor to perform and the novice gymnasts completed their competition on the trampette. Faith and Maria were all up against stiff competition and girls who were much older and with more experience of competing at this level.
The competition came to an end and we all waited anxiously for the results. All of the girls knew they had performed the best they could have and were proud to have represented Sharples.
As the results came in, our girls all held hands nervously. I am extremely pleased to report that Faith Peake came third on the floor and third overall in her category. Jess Hill came third in the trampette and second overall in her category and Maria Ehiamen came second in the floor discipline for her category.
This is an outstanding achievement for the girls as most of the gymnasts at the competition train regularly at Bolton Gymnastics Club. The girls who were placed received a medal and all of the girls received a certificate. A special thank you must go to Natasha Robinson and Milli Knowles (in Year 10) who came along to support the competition, especially to Natasha who has trained the girls regularly and helped with their routines. I look forward to next year’s competition, let’s go for GOLD!
