Back-to-back titles for Molly

PIPERS Vale Gymnastics Club's Molly Taylor has become only the second person in eight years to gain back-to-back National Elite Grade titles.

Having become British champion in Elite Grade Four last year, Taylor seamlessly made the step up to Elite Grade Three by again taking the title in Birmingham.

Not only is it a feat that no one since 2001 has done, it is also a first ever in the history of Pipers Vale and the east region as a whole.

Taylor, whose team also became Compulsory National Elite Grade Three British champions, went into the competition after her biggest rivals had already set a massive 61.650 to beat.

The youngster showed maturity beyond her years and - with scores of 12.90 on vault, 12.550 on bars, 12.50 on beam and 12.45 on floor - showed tremendous consistency throughout the competition.

And, despite making a huge mistake halfway through her final piece of range and conditioning, she was still able to secure a score of 11.850 to take the title and rewrite the history books.

Also competing for Pipers Vale in the Elite Grade Three category was Miri Budd and Charlotte Mwayi, who were also both part of the east region team.

Mwayi started the competition very well with a fantastic score on vault (13.00), however two unfortunate mistakes on beam brought her score down to 59.125 to leave her in a still very impressive place of eighth.

Meanwhile, Budd also competed well, however two falls on the beam pulled her score down to 54.250 to leave her in 44th place.

The fourth girl to compete from Pipers Vale was Georgia Conway who took part in the Compulsory National Elite Grade Four.

This was the first time Conway had competed at national level and she gave a really good performance, going clean, to score 57.70 and finish tenth overall.

In addition, two girls from Pipers Vale also competed in the National Club Grades one week earlier.

There Tuscanny Bullock (Club Grade Four) and Chloe Wood (Club Grade Two) came 11th and 17th respectively.