Success for gymnasts in National gradings (From Barry And District News)

Success for gymnasts in National gradings

BARRY YMCA gymnasts enjoyed success in the National Gradings event, which was recently held at the Welsh Institute of Sport.

Following a very successful outing at the South Area Grades event, Megan Dancey (2nd in Grade 4 at South Area event), Chantel Jones (1st in Grade 4 at South Area event), Charlotte Hobbs (4th in Grade 5 event at South Area event) and Ffion Byrne (3rd in Grade 5 event in South Area event) were all selected to represent the South area at the National event.

They had a fantastic time during the event, with Megan Dancey becoming the Welsh Grade 4 champion, with teammate Chantel Jones taking the bronze medal in this event.

They both assisted the South Area team in becoming the Grade 4 team champions.

Ffion and Charlotte enjoyed similar success, with Ffion placing fourth overall in the individual Grade 5 event and Charlotte placing 10th.

Both gymnasts made it on to the medal rostrum when the South Area Grade 5 team took second place in the team event.

Rhiannon Paton represented Barry at the South Area grade 6 event and placed 5th overall, qualifying her to represent the area in the finals. However she was a few months over the qualification age group for this category and therefore was not able to attend.

However, Rhiannon performed excellently in her first grading, scoring a distinction, allowing her to progress to her next grading.

Welsh gymnasts competing in grade 3, 2 and 1 undertake their gradings at the National event.

In the grade 2 event, Barry YMCA was represented by Finlay Haswell.

Finlay displayed consistent work throughout her grading, showing particular improvement on her floor exercise. This good work ensured that she passed her grade 2 and can now progress to grade 1.

Grade 1 is the most difficult of the club grades. Sophie Grisdale and Sarah Barrett competed in this event and demonstrated some high-scoring performances on all four pieces of apparatus.

They showed particular strength on the vault, where they both scored more than nine points out of a possible ten. This assisted them both in being successful in passing this grade.

Sarah s consistency on all four pieces of apparatus meant that she also secured the silver medal in grade 1.

As they have now completed all grades, both gymnasts will progress to the Voluntary Level event, where they perform routines with elements of their choice.

The club congratulated all gymnasts and coaches Kirby Goddard, Holly Templeton, Anne Gardiner and Karen Davies.