THERE was absolute delight at YMCA Barry Gymnastics Club when their youngest female gymnasts competed at the annual South Central Wales five, six and seven-years and Preparation Grade Championships.

YMCA Barry entered 22 gymnasts and each one came home with at least one medal.

In the youngest five-year-old category, the YMCA Barry gymnasts made a big impact and even at their young age behaved impeccably and smiled throughout.

The gymnasts received countless top six placings on all apparatus with Lellie Jones and Hollie Fletcher receiving third overall and Charlie-Rae Davies second overall.

YMCA Barry entered two teams into this category with the team consisting of Caitlin Hamilton, Islah Anderson, Soron Hill and Freya Armstrong winning Team Bronze and the team of Charlie, Lellie, Hollie, Olivia Strong and Isla Enos became the five-year-old Team Champions.

A special mention to Lellie, Isla and Freya who actually competed in the five-year-old competition a year early at only four-years-old.

In the six-year-old championships Katie Wong, Lacey Jones and Taya Anderson performed brilliantly in their first ever competition, with all three receiving apparatus top six awards. The girls worked hard to earn the fantastic team bronze for YMCA Barry.

The seven-year old team again demonstrated excellent routines with again Melissa Cookson, Aliya Weston, Casey Moores and Ruby Clark all coming away with apparatus awards and narrowly missed out on a team medal.

The Preparation Grades consist of extremely demanding routines which prepare younger advanced gymnasts towards higher level competitions.

In Preparation Grade 7, six-year-olds Nia Beasley, Lottie Cummins and Azaria Karim performed beautiful routines and they received medals and ribbons on every piece of apparatus.

A few highlights included Azaria becoming the Bars Champion and Nia the Vault and Range and Conditioning Champion. These results were topped by the overall and team results, where Azaria was fourth, Lottie third and Nia second overall and became the Preparation Grade 7 Team Champions.

Everyone agreed that at such a young age, their performances were fantastic and demonstrated maturity beyond their years.

The final competition of the day was the Preparation Grade 6 Championships where seven-year-olds Millie Williams, Rosie Bishop and Emmy Saddler had a big task against a high level of competition.

All three girls performed challenging routines with new moves on all apparatus which were performed without mistakes. Again, all three girls gained apparatus medals and ribbons on all pieces with Millie receiving fourth overall and the three girls becoming the Team Preparation Grade 6 Champions.

A big congratulations to all of the girls who competed and made the club extremely proud.

Finally, to round off 2016 for the female competitive gymnastics squad, Millie Williams gained a place in the Welsh Development Squad. The Development Squad consists of those with the potential to compete at Wales' highest gymnastic level where Millie will train alongside the Welsh National coaches for the next six months.

YMCA Barry has classes in female, male and rhythmic gymnastics, as well as cheerleading and trampolining classes.

For more information follow YMCA Barry on social media @ymcabarry, call 01446 724000 or email sophie@ymcabarry.org.uk.