Between Friday 23rd and Sunday 26th April, Britains top gymnasts came together at the Echo Arena in Liverpool for the 2017 British Championships. Notts junior gymnasts Scarlett Williams, Laura Kaletha and Christine Tse competed in the Junior event. This was a big stage on podium and the girls all impressed with their performances. Scarlett produced two stunning Vaults with her 13.5 for a straight Yuchenko seeing her qualify for the Vault final, whilst Christine performed her straight Yuchenko for the first time. Beam saw stuck routines for Laura and Scarlett, Scarlett's 12.4 seeing her into her second final of the day. The girls flourished on Floor with Christine and Scarlett both displaying beautiful choreography whilst Laura's dynamic tumbling included competing a double Arabian nationally for the first time. 

Double Downie sisters, Becky and Ellie took to the stage on the Saturday in the Senior event. Ellie competed on all 4-pieces, starting strongly on Vault, followed by an impressive bar routine, even an error on her new skill did not dampen her confidence as she moved to beam and produced a stuck routine. Ellie finished on floor and wowed the audience and judges with not only a new double-double tumble but also a newly choreographed routine which was not only dynamic but eye catching throughout. Floor sealed the title for Ellie as she became the senior AA British Champion! She qualified for all 4 apparatus finals the following day. Becky competed on her specialist pieces Bars and Beam. A newly performed bar routine complete with Geinger salto and a stuck Beam saw her qualify to Sunday finals on both apparatus. 

The apparatus finals on the Sunday started with Scarlett competing on vault and beam. Scarlett rose to the challenge on both apparatus, with no touch warm-up and on a podium stage the pressure was high but Scarlett reproduced her beautiful vaults to finish 5th overall. On beam Scarlett finished a place higher than her qualifying in 7th. In the senior competition Ellie took the vault title impressively with a stuck 2/1 twisting yuchenko earning her 15.15 for vault one, she also took the bars title today completing her routine cleanly to score 14.6. Becky's beautiful swinging and lines on bars meant she took the bronze medal even with an error. Both Ellie and Becky withdrew from the floor and beam finals due to minor injuries and a busy competition schedule ahead. 

Huge congratulations to all girls involved!

6 Gymnasts from Notts were taking part in this year’s National grade 3 competition, Olivia Coventry, Katie Watson, Jemimah Ingram-Jones, Amy Harper, Erin Scott and Lara Hill. 

Starting on Beam, clean routines for Liv competed all the skills she had been working hard on in the weeks leading up to the comp but unfortunately suffered 3 falls, clean routines for Katie, Jemimah and Erin but one fall each for Amy and Lara. Moving to floor, Clean routines for all but backward roll to handstand ½ turn to forward roll proved to be a problem for everyone entered in the competition with the judges only crediting 3 in the whole competition, Katie managing to be one of those 3. Moving to Range and Conditioning, so often a problem but this proved to be the best piece for Notts with everyone managing to get through safely with no falls, Liv was the only one penalised for not managing to hold handstand but overall a great effort with the majority of scores around the 12 mark. Another good performance followed on Vault with Amy registering the highest score of the competition 13.150. Finally to bars and ‘Giants’, the skill that had seen so much effort and problems leading up to the comp, this time they proved to be no problem with every one registering a full routine with no falls, Katie finishing with the highest bar score in her age group. Overall a very successful day and relief from the stress of training leading up to it, everyone passing and going home with smiles on their faces, especially Katie who provided the added bonus of the day with a bronze medal overall. 

Niamh Lehane, Lori Prentice and Jojo Darby took part in National grade 4 in the afternoon.Starting on Floor we saw Niamh and Lori perform their lovely new floor routines, and a well performed routine from Jojo. Moving on to range, Niamh did a great routine with no falls earning her a score of 12.8 on this piece. Lori & Jojo also showed good routines, with a few wobbles on the pike to handstand. Next was vault, Jojo and Niamh showed us some much improved vaults, unfortunately for Lori, this piece didn’t go as well as we had hoped. On bars we saw some nice giants from all 3 girls and on beam we saw clean routines from Niamh and Lori, and only one fall for Jojo. Overall, Niamh and Jojo had a good competition meaning they passed National grade 4, unfortunately Lori’s vault cost her, however we still saw some great work on all other pieces!

Well done girls!

Beatrice Hill, Mika Webster Longin and Geneva Jones competed their compulsory grades at the East Midlands Regional Championships on Saturday 19th March. 

The competition got off to a good start  with 3 clean, sharp beam routines so the girls moved confidently onto floor. 

Beatrice performed a routine with solid tumbles and impressive landings balanced with elegant and captivating choreography. Geneva put on a dramatic performance which demonstrated how much she has grown in confidence working her floor routine. Mika's routine was bursting with personality and smiles with quality tumbles to match. 

Beatrice competed a powerful vault scoring over 13 marks. Mika and Geneva then also showed dynamic vaults to score high 12s. Beatrice finished her competition with a beautiful bar routine to score 12.750. And a big well done to Mika competed forward giants for the first time. 

Mika and Geneva were guests at the competition and had a very good run through of their routines. 

Beatrice was crowned compulsory 3 regional champion with and impressive score of 60.4

Well done to all 3 girls and good luck for national finals.

Sunday 5th March saw girls from across the region comete in the Regional Grades Championships. The day started with Club Grades 6 and 5, and in the morning.

The R2 group did a great job with some beautiful beam work from Hattie Jackson and Stephanie Booth, an awesome and enthusiastic floor from Antonia, a lovely tight bar routine from Layla Lehane and Lily Hawthorne's poise in Range was great. The girls achived the scores of:

Layla Lehane - 57.276

Stephanie Booth - 59.917

Hattie Jackson - 59.817

Ella Dean - 55.083

Lily Hawthorne - 53.5

Antonia Crofts - 50.083

All passed their grades!

Development Challenge all competed at Club Grade 5. They started their competition on beam where we saw some lovely beam work from Bella Saunders-Lucas, and no falls for any of the girls on this piece! We then  saw some much improved, neat floor and range routines from Nina McEachran and Adele Brown, very tight and controlled bar routines from Violet Billingham and Amelia Short and some great, powerful handspring flat back vaults from Lottie Darby and Anna Bianchi The girls achieved scores of:

Adele Brown - 59.5 

Violet Billingham - 56.067 

Bella Saunders-Lucas - 55.017

Amelia Short - 54.283

Nina McEachran - 53.7

Lottie Darby - 53.433

Anna Bianchi - 50.1

All passed their grades!

Development Elite competed Compulsory 5 in the afternoon. The coaches are very proud and the afternoon saw a beautiful bar routine from Cadie Munday, powerful vaults from Diaz Hector, Naomi Williams and Lily Reyes, Sofia Granton-Crow's range was very elegant, and Katie Donaghey and Erin Prentice did some beautiful back walkovers on beam. Lots of personal worries were overcome and we can't wait to get back in the gym and keep building on their achievements.

All girls showed team spirit and for their first big competition they did a fantastic job, achieving the following scores: 

Katie Donaghey 55.55

Sofia Granton-Crow 52.2

Diaz Hector 56.85

Cadie Munday 58.2

Erin Prentice 54.85

Lily Reyes 49.9

Naomi Williams 56.1

Conratulations to all the girls involved!

In her first Scottish Championships, Isabella Willocks made the long trip north to Perth for the first major competition of the season.

Issy was looking to compete new skills she had been working on in the Espoir category. Everybody was really welcoming which helped the podium training where Issy displayed a relaxed but focused approach successfully training all her skills.

Warm up for competition went extremely well, with the new skills looking particularly solid. Starting on Bars Issy showed a clean tidy routine but unfortunately a couple of missed handstands cost her resulting in a lower than expected score. Moving to Beam, she was unable to replicate the solid acro series from the warm up and finished the routine with two falls. On floor she produced a very tidy routine producing a very respectable score of 10.95, finally to vault and the first time she had competed her new vault (Tucked Tsuk) in major competition. A slightly low landing was the only major deduction but a very positive result considering she had only been working the vault for just over a month. A good debut at a new competition and although not everything went to plan there were many positives and Issy showed that she has the skills to potentially finish in the top 10 and with more to come in the near future we're sure next year she will be back next year determined to show what she is capable of.