40 gymnasts from MK Springers travelled to Andover to take part in the annual Sports acrobatic and tumbling summer tournament. This event includes clubs from the entire southern region which reaches from Milton Keynes to the Isle of White. MK Springers had 40 acrobats and tumblers entered; This is the largest entry to date by the club in a regional competition.
Many of the young gymnasts have never competed before and there was a very large audience for their début performance. The day began early with a 9am warm up. The tumbling entry was so large that it was decided to compete the lower level tumbling on both floor and tumble track. MK Springers boys and girls had trained hard with their coach Tugs and it showed.
In Grade C aged 10 and under, MK Springers covered all the podium positions In 3rd place was Jada Braithwait-Scott, 2nd was Jai Harper and in first place was Jodie Blackhurst. In 11-12 Grade C Shannon Barby achieved 1st place. Grade D saw Imogen kingsman taking 1st place closely followed by Eloise Driscol who achieved 3rd place. In the older age group, a nervous Jessica Bright got 3rd place.
As the day progressed the tumbling levels became more difficult but Ella Turner showed why she had competed in the British Final a month earlier and again won gold. Megan Ellis was even more shocked when she was presented with her bronze medal. Harriet Evens slightly over-rotated her final summersault just missed out on gold but was presented with a silver medal.
National 2 level had the more experienced tumblers with Natalie Keyte achieving second place and her team mate Stephanie Parker just behind her in third place. Ruth O’Donnell in Elite 2 level showed too why she had tumbled in the British finals earlier this year, she again completed clean runs to receive a gold medal.
In all MK Springers achieved 13 tumbling Medals.
The club was not to be disappointed on floor. Prep A pair, Kyle Ayris/Kye Souster came away with gold and team mates Emily England/Jessica Candler received silver. Prep B groups Megan Ellis/Freya Clarke/Jai Harper showed why they were regional and inter-regional champions by again receiving gold medals. Level 1 pairs saw the MK Springers gymnast’s just missing out on medals. Level 2 groups the club faired better with Bekki Novack/Sian Evans/Jenny Becket achieving second place. Level 2 pairs MK Springers were back on the podium with Stephanie Parker/Abigail Maxwell receiving gold and Anna Ryan /Harriet Evans getting bronze. Our level 3 pair Rhiannon Owen /Katie Adams continued the medal haul by achieving silver place. The club in all picked up 21 individual medals on floor.
This competition also had team trophies, Novice floor team trophies were presented to MK Springers A team with their B team in second place. Novice tumble team also saw MK Springers achieving first and second place. In the junior team event on floor saw MK Springers just missing out on the trophy but on tumble they achieved 2nd place.
Head Judge & coach for MK Springers Helen Beaumont said” These girls & boys have trained hard many had exams during the run up to this event but they never missed their training sessions. This show how committed they are to their sport and how they are well able to manage their time. Their hard work and determination has certainly paid off today. Now we start preparing for the Bucks Open in October”