GYMNASTICS: Six young gymnasts from Pipers Vale Club in Ipswich have shown their tremendous ability by competing in county and regional events on successive weekends at Ipswich Gymnastics Club.

GYMNASTICS

SIX young gymnasts from Pipers Vale Club in Ipswich have shown their tremendous ability by competing in county and regional events on successive weekends at Ipswich Gymnastics Club.

Lilly Black, Charlotte Cattermole, Natasha Wood, Charlotte Beeson, Yasmin Cook and Amber Russell took part in events for nine and 10 year olds.

Natasha, Charlotte, Yasmin and Amber were up against 10 year olds from all over Suffolk and competed extremely well.

Yasmin and Amber battled it out to the end where Yasmin took the county title and the gold medal with Amber taking silver.

The Pipers Vale quartet proved to be dominant because Charlotte took third and Natasha fourth.

In the nine year old age group Lilly and Charlotte were competing voluntary routines for the first time and were very nervous. The girls started on the bars with Lilly going clean and Charlotte making one mistake. The girls both went clean on the other three pieces as well and ended the day with Lilly winning gold and taking the county title and Charlotte taking silver.

All of these gymnast went on to compete in the regional finals which also act as the qualifying competition for the national finals to be held at Guildford.

The first competition was for the nine year olds. Lilly and Charlotte started on the vault and although doing simple vaults scored very highly. Lilly competed the bar routine with extreme precision and went clean. Charlotte made a small mistake on the low bar but still scored highly.

On the dreaded beam both Lilly and Charlotte only had one fall. The last piece was floor and both girls performed well.

Lilly competed well and took the gold by over a whole mark, making her overall Eastern Regional Champion. Charlotte's work was also very good but she made one mistake and this put her into the bronze medal position. Both girls now go on to the National Finals in November.

There were also individual trophies for each piece of apparatus giving a regional champion on each piece. Lilly took three out of the four trophies on vault, bars and beam. Only a few others have done the same and they have gone on to become national squad members.

In the second competition for the 10 year olds Charlotte, Yaasmin and Amber started on vault and competed brilliantly, scoring the highest marks of the day.

They surpassed the rest of the gymnasts scoring the highest marks of the day. The beam was next and Amber made one mistake. Yasmin, however, put in a fantastic performance and scored the highest mark of the day.

Because of Amber's performance on vault and bars she was still in third place going to the floor. Yasmin' s beam had put her in to first place and it all depended on the floor routines. Amber did a fantastic floor and did enough to hold on to third place Yasmin needed a 7.00 to win but managed 7.10 to take the gold medal and overall regional title by .10.

" This is fantastic for the club, not only have we dominated at county level but also at regional level as well," said head coach Andy Wood. "Last year these girls didn't make the national finals but this year four out the five will do so.

"Much credit has to go to Tony and Freda Whetstone, Justine Newby and Elaine Wood for their hard work and time which has helped to produce these gymnasts. It was a real team effort," he added.