Gymnasts take title at Welsh Championships (From Barry And District News)

Gymnasts take title at Welsh Championships

BARRY gymnasts successfully competed at the 2004 Welsh Gymnastics Championships.

The Barry YMCA Gymnastics Club was well represented by Kirsty Lawrence (13), Sophie Richardson (13), Stacey Webb (12) and Ruby Hartery (11).

Kirsty was the top scorer in the individual overall competition, clinching the Welsh Espoire (under-13 category) Title. Second was her training partner Sophie.

The Barry duo's successful day continued when Kirsty became the Welsh Espoire Floor Champion and Sophie became the Welsh Espoire Bars Champion.

Their younger clubmates Stacey and Ruby joined them in the Espoires category. Despite being some of the youngest in this category, they both mastered new difficult routines to produce very positive scores.

In the Senior category of the Welsh Championships, 16-year-old Olivia Bryl competed in only her second competition in over a year. Her startling performance on the vault resulted in her becoming the Welsh Senior Vault Champion.

On the asymmetric bars Olivia top scored to become the Welsh Senior Bars Champion.

She performed a new floor routine composed by the National Squad Choreographer Ionna Popova and took the gold medal to become the Welsh Senior Floor Champion.

Going into the final round Olivia only had to score seven points on beam which is usually well within her reach. However, an uncustomary fall within the first few seconds resulted in further errors and a disappointing personal performance.

Olivia's other high-scoring exercises resulted in her taking a well-deserved second place in the Individual Overall competition.

Taking place at the same time was the Welsh Open Championships. Barry gymnasts did well with Kirsty Lawrence taking third place overall and also gaining the floor title. Her training partner Sophie Richardson gained a well-earned silver position in the bars event.

In the Senior category Olivia Bryl added numerous medals to her already large tally by taking first place on bars and floor, and second place on vault.

Coaches Linda Gee and Sonia Lawrence were delighted with the performances of the five gymnasts. An excellent day of gymnastics came to a great climax when the Barry team consisting of the five gymnasts took the overall team title to become the Welsh Team Champions.