This Halloween weekend Saturday 29th and Sunday 30th October saw Notts Gymnastics Academy host it's very first Double Downie Cup, and with over 200 competitors and 20 different clubs from across the county it was a huge success! The friendly, yet professional competition proved to be a popular warm-up for national finals and British espoir later in the year. Along with the fantastic gymnastics displayed, Becky Downie, Ellie Downie and Max Whitlock presented participation presents and medals to the gymnasts throughout the weekend.

Saturday round 1-3 saw the level 5 in and open age competition, as well as open age level 4.

Lexi Siddons, Bella Saunders-Lucas, Lottie Darby, Anna Bianchi, Adele Brown and Amelia short all competed in-age level 5. Starting on vault all of the girls showed us some great vaults, including Bella, Lottie, Adele and Lexi who competed a new vault for the first time. They also all showed nice bar routines with no falls, which meant that Lexi, Adele and Bella all improved their scores from their previous competition. On beam, we had a few nervous falls but Bella, Lottie and Adele all produced clean routines and Amelia competed her backward walkover for the first time! Our final piece was floor, the girls all showed us improved floor routines, with everyone competing at least one new skill for the first time.

Niamh Lehane and Lori Prentice both competed out of age level 5, they started off with good performances on vault and bars where Lori managed to complete her whole bar routine with no falls for the first time! On beam both girls showed lovely routines, Lori stuck her beam routine, where as Niamh had one fall although this didn’t stop her still getting a good score. The girls final piece was floor, where they both showed great tumbles and much improved leaps!

In the last round on Saturday, Jemimah Ingram-Jones, Erin Scott, Olivia Coventry, Amy Harper Lara Hill, Lucy Willis and Joanna Darby competed in the out of age level 4 section. Joanna had a clean competition proving that she had worked on her mistakes from regionals as well as competing a new tumble on floor. Lucy also had a clean competition, even after being injured for most of the week leading up to the competition. She also made huge improvements in her scores from her previous competition on bars and beam. Overall Lara had a good competition. She had a fall on beam but that didn’t stop her from smiling and showing off all the way through! Erin and Amy showed us some strong performances, whilst Jemimah took the silver medal on floor with a very clean routine and Olivia took the bronze medal on vault for her half on half off.

In a strong field Jemimah finished 4th narrowly missing out on a medal, Erin 11th, Olivia 12th  Amy Harper 17th, Joanna Darby 31st, Lara Hill and Lucy Willis joint 34th overall.

Sunday, saw our 6 youngest Elite gymnasts: Summer Hill, Jasmine Whitaker, Mika Webster Longin (Level 2), Geneva Jones, Zadie Berkin-Evans (Level 3)  and Beatrice Hill (Level 4) compete in round 4. For Summer, Jasmine, Mika and Beatrice this was a good practice competition a week before their national finals.

All the girls performed improved beam routine and have increased their previous scores. Geneva demonstrated a beautiful flic flic across series and Mika was pleased to have shown a neat and stuck routine. Zadie competed a nice basic routine gaining experience and confidence after returning from injury. Beatrice placed 2nd in her category.

Summer, Jasmine, Mika and Beatrice enjoyed competing on floor and showed confident, expressive routines. Jasmine won gold with her performance.

Moving onto vault, Geneva competed a beautiful yurchenko entry vault. Summer and Jasmine won first and second place respectively. Beatrice competed her level 4 vault and came 3rd on this piece of apparatus.

Finishing on bars, Geneva's routine reflected the hard work she has put in on her handstands and giant shapes. Beatrice executed a tidy routine and won gold. Summer won a well deserved first place with a nice routine including beautiful handstands and a stunning dismount.

Overall, Beatrice won joint first with Sienna Goodwin from south Essex. Summer placed 3rd and Jasmine 4th.

Sunday, round 5 saw our junior and espoir gymnasts: Laura Kaletha, Scarlett Williams, Caitlin Williams, Isla Lees and Ramyah Kofi perform. Alongside our challenge gymnasts: Isabella Willocks, Thea Dane, Hannah Piechota and Olivia Hackney.

Vault brought strong performances by all including a new handspring front vault for Isla and a straight tsukahara by Olivia winning a bronze and gold medal on this apparatus respectively. Ramiyah and Scarlett shared the vault title for espoir, with Thea taking the challenge espoir title and Isabella the silver medal.

Bars brought more new skills with both Isla and Ramiyah performing their routine with a thatchev to provide much improved scores and the silver and gold medal respectively, Isabella has also worked hard on her bar and gained the gold medal in the challenge espoir catogory. Olivia took the silver medal in the junior challenge category on this apparatus, with Laura taking the junior title. Caitlin who is returning from injury produced a clean routine with a beautiful full twisting dismount.

On to beam, and some nerves showed but tidy work was competed nevertheless. Isabella took a silver medal along with Thea. Olivia also took silver in her catogory, along with Hannah taking bronze. In the espoir catogory Scarlett and Isla took the bronze medal with Ramiyah winning gold.

Laura who is also recovering from injury produced a clean routine to win the gold medal.

Moving to their final piece on floor, a stunning display of exciting skills and beautiful choreography was seen. Isabella winning bronze and Thea silver. Olivia also took silver for her catogory with Hannah taking bronze. Scarlett and Isla were the joint espoir floor champions.

Overall, in what was a successful warm up for Bill Slater teams and the British Espoir Ramiyah took the espoir title with Isla in 2nd. Isabella placed 2nd overall, with Thea 3rd in the challenge espoir competition. For our challenge junior competition Olivia took the silver medal, with Hannah bronze.

In our final round of the weekend, Elyse Hallam (level 2 open age) and Charlotte Thomas (level 3 open age) competed. Elyse who has been working hard to return to full fitness competed on all apparatus and secured the silver medal on vault with a new pike tsukahara. Charlotte in a strong field performed confidently to finish 11th overall, narrowly missing out on a bars and floor medal.

Well done to all the girls and good luck with national finals, Bill Slater and British Espoir! 

Following training at the GB Junior European squads this year, Scarlett Williams has been selected to compete in her first GB international At the Olympic Hopes competition.

Scarlett will travel to the Czech Republic at the beginning of November with the rest of the selected team GB. This is a fantastic achievement and opportunity for Scarlett who is still an Espoir gymnast and one of the youngest junior European squad member.

CONGRATULATIONS AND GOOD LUCK!

The morning saw the youngest age category (10) with Amy Harper, Erin Scott, Lara Hill, JoJo Darby and Lucy Willis competing for the academy. 

Starting on Vault, all gymnasts produced solid vaults to start the competition, Erin just missing out on a medal in 4^th place with her ½ on ½ off. Bars saw clean routines again from everyone but without the giants the scores were lower than some competitors. Moving to Beam where Amy was the only Notts gymnast to produce a performance without any falls, finishing in 7^th place on the apparatus. Finally a chance to show off on floor, once again no falls but  some routines lacked the skills of some gymnasts reducing the final scores.

Overall a good performance for the gymnasts competing at this level for the first time, Amy finishing in 11^th place from a field of 30 competitors.

The afternoon saw the Olivia Coventy (11 years), Jessie Mitchell (12/13) and Tanith Beresford (14+).

It was a good start for all on Bars, Jessie managing to successfully compete the routine she had only put together on Friday. All went clean and then moved to Beam, a fall each for Tanith and Jessie but Olivia went through with no falls to set up the next apparatus, Floor. Once again it was clean routines all round as was the case on Vault with all gymnasts successfully competing ½ on ½ off.

Olivia gained reward for her clean competition finishing 3^rd overall & 3^rd on Bars & Beam, Tanith just missed out on an overall medal finishing 4^th but did pick up individual apparatus medals picking up Silver on Vault & Bars and Bronze on Floor. Jessie routines were controlled as she calmed her usual nerves producing one of her best competition performances.

Download the latest quarterly update - Academy Performance Director update October 2016

We are delighted to announce that we have appointed Sergey Sizhanov as Assistant Head of the Men’s discipline.

Sergey is a Level 6 – International Performance Coach and has produced exceptional results in both a club setting and internationally with Great Britain. Back when we were Notts school of gymnastics, Sergey coached both the junior and senior boys for 5 years. During this time, Notts won the British U12 team championships 3 years in a row, as well as the British NDP team championships. He personally coached the likes of Andrew Smith, Reece Pearson, Zach Walker as well as Sam Oldham, who all achieved British All-Around titles in this time. During his time at British Gymnastics, he has been a driving factor in the success of the men’s junior teams, with many going on to represent GB at the Olympic Games. Sergey was the head coach to the Junior European Championship winning team in 2008, which included his own gymnasts Reece Pearson and Sam, as well as Daniel Keatings and Daniel Purvis. He was also the Head Coach to the Junior European Championship winning teams in 2010 and 2016, which involved gymnasts such as Max Whitlock, Frank Baines, Nile Wilson and Brinn Bevan. At a senior level, he was also Sam Hunter’s personal coach during his success at the 2010 European Championships, as well as the 2010 World Championships when he finished 7^th All-Around.

We look forward to officially welcoming Sergey to the academy on Monday 31^st October.