Gibraltar's Gymnasts Reach UK Championships

This GRGA went to Spelthorne, London to compete in the qualifiers for the British National competitions. It was a mixture of new and experienced girls competing under the new code.  Gibraltar did itself proud, with our girls looking sharp and elegant on the floor.  With brand new routines, entertaining music and stunning leotards, the girls certainly made an impression at this competition.

Emma Bosio competed in the U8 section (she may not compete in British Nationals as she is too young) and started our success story with an amazing freehand routine that made all judges sit up ands see our youngest member as a new hopeful in Britain. She then became Gibraltar's youngest gymnasts to compete with apparatus with her hoop routine.  Emma came 2nd overall with freehand, 2nd overall with hoop and 2nd overall in total. What a great beginning for this 8 year old.

Adele Victory competed in U9 in her first British competition and did extremely well with both her freehand and hoop routines and placed 7th overall. Adele has passed to go to British National Grades Championships in October in Bath.

Sian Holmes competed in the U10 section and started her competition with a great hoop routine followed by her rope routine, securing her top marks to qualify for British National Grades.

Alexandra Ballantine also competed in U10 and although she looked good on the carpet with the new code being stricter did not qualify this year, but passed her grade section so she can compete again next year.

Louise Gonzalez competed in U11 and showed her flexibility and style in ball and achieving 3rd place for the apparatus. Along with her rope routine Louise passed to go to British National Grades.

Claire Wahnon also competed in the U11 section but narrowly missed qualifying. With the 2009 code any drop of the apparatus is seeing far higher deductions. Claire passed her grade section so she will be able to compete again next year.

Charlie Cooper joined the team this year in U12 and had to learn 3 new apparatus (Ball, Rope and Clubs) for this competition. Although she did not qualify she performed fantastically as all of this is very new to her. We will see more of Charlie next year in the UK.

Gabriella Lyden has moved up to U13 and now competes the same as juniors all 4 apparatus. (Hoop, Rope, Clubs and Ball). Gabriella has been improving all the time and proved this with an easy qualification to British Nationals.

The junior section saw Nicola Bosio and Najade Sheriff competing against the number 1 Junior gymnasts in the UK.

Nicola's performance was fantastic with her achieving 3rd overall on all apparatus and 3rd overall for the competition.

Nicola will be competing at the British National Grades in October.

The top judges that have seen this gymnast over the last 3 years were very impressed with her routines and her confidence in her gymnastics.

Najade Sheriff also in the Junior Section competed in all 4 apparatus for the first time and did incredibly well. With her style and elegance Najade secured herself a place in British National Grades.

In the senior section Zyanne Gonzalez competed as well for the first time with all 4 apparatus (rope, ball, ribbon and hoop). Although she did amazing routines she did not qualify this time, but we will be seeing more of her in the future.

Georgina Cassar is at the moment Gibraltar's shining star.  Georgina competed for her first time in the senior section, and has qualified to go in June to The British National Championships. With her amazing win with ball and overall high marks Georgina is our first gymnast to go through to this prestigious competition.

The top coaches and committee of British Gymnastics have congratulated Gibraltar on such great success in only 3 years; having 7 gymnasts from Gibraltar through to Grades, and one qualifying to The British National Championships is a huge achievement in such a short time.

The GRGA would like to thank their amazing team, our judge Gema Fernandez, our choreographer Jolene Gomez, and Paulette Finlayson and Horace Bonfante for the ballet.

This year we have also been fortunate to obtain sponsors from outside Gibraltar to help with our success.  Milano for the tracksuits, Dvillena for all the toes shoes and Swarovski for the Crystals and GM International for the leotard covers.