Pipers Vale Gymnasts Pascal Craymer and Rosalie Hutton took part in this years British Championships Held at the Spectrum Leisure Centre Guildford. Rosalie took part in the Espoir (11 - 13 age group) Championships which were held on the Friday evening.

Pipers Vale Gymnasts Pascal Craymer and Rosalie Hutton took part in this years British Championships Held at the Spectrum Leisure Centre Guildford.

Rosalie took part in the Espoir (11 - 13 age group) Championships which were held on the Friday evening. Rosalie started on the floor and from the start was up against it as she was competing against 60 other competitors of which at least 10 were national squad members and a few had International experience. The Floor routine was one of Rosalie's best and she got of to a great start with a score of 8.3 only 4 other gymnasts were to score higher during the competition. Next piece was vault and again Rosalie competed it in a very business like manor scoring 8.25. Next was bars one of Rosalie's best pieces and again she showed great maturity in her performance scoring 7.85. The last piece was Beam the piece that most gymnasts hate but in Rosalie's case this was probably her favourite piece. She went on to this piece knowing that an 8.0 would secure her the bronze medal making her ranked no 3 in the country. She started well but then made a small error in the middle of her routine. She had to wait an agonising 10 minutes for her score. When it arrived it was 7.9 she had missed the bronze medal by 0.1. However to have come 4th out of a field of 60 gymnasts shows that Rosalie is now ranked as one of the best gymnasts in the country for age.

As an added bonus she had made it through to apparatus finals, 3 Bars, Beam and floor, which were held on the Sunday. This competition is for the top 8 gymnasts on each piece of apparatus in the country and just too make it to this level is a massive achievement in its' self. Rosalie started on floor and did a steady performance putting herself into 6th position. The next piece was Bars and Rosalie did a cracking routine and was lying in equal first place the last gymnast was still to go she also did a fantastic routine and scored just 0.2 higher than Rosalie but this still gave Rosalie the silver medal making her the number two gymnast bars in the country. The last piece was Beam Rosalies favourite piece. She again showed great maturity in her performance and did a wonderful routine. She had made up for the mistake in the all around. She held on to top spot until the last two gymnasts who also did fantastic routines Rosalie was pushed into third place and the bronze medal.

"This competition is as good as it gets the standard gets no higher and to come 4th overall is an outstanding achievement but to get medals on two out of three pieces of apparatus is just fantastic. This is the clubs best result to date getting in the top as this is the top competition of the year"

Pascal had a very tough job the top 15 gymnasts all had international experience so her job was going to be really tough. In the end 0.6 was the difference between 5th place and 15th place that's how close it was. One mistake would cost you dearly. Pascal started on beam probably her worst piece. But she did a good job and went clean but did not score as we had hoped. She then went to floor and competed the best floor routine of the day and finished to rapturous applause she had all the judges talking as well. vault was next and she made three small errors then she came to bars. The routine had gone really well until the dismount where she under rotated and fell which cost her 6 places up until then she was in 6th but because of the fall on bars she dropped to 13th but still a good result in view of the standard she was up against.

Pascal had made two piece final Floor and Bars and floor was first. We were hoping for a medal on floor but she fell on her first tumble which put her 8th but it does mean that she is ranked 8th in the country on floor. Bars was next and she made the same mistake as on the Saturday. But others made mistakes as well and she needed up 6th . Which still makes her the 6th best bars worker in the Country.

"Pascal was disappointed with her results but when you take into consideration that she was putting out new routines on every piece of apparatus and the level of the gymnasts she was competing against she did very well and she should be proud of her achievements to date"

This has now put Pipers Vale on the map the biggest girls competition of the year two gymnasts in the top 15 and two medals what an absolutely fantastic year so far and we are only half way through it.

This is the first medal win the club has had at these championships and the first the first gymnast in 6 years that Andy and Elaine Wood have produced to win a medal at this standard.

"The last Gymnast that I coached to this standard went on to compete in the Olympic Games so we could be seeing the start of things to come" said Wood.

What makes this even more remarkable is that both girls have about an hour and a halfs journey to the gym to train. Rosalie travels from King's Lynn and Pascal From Southend.

If you would like to start gymnastics please contact Andy on 01473 433676 for more details.