East Midlands Boys Floor and Vault, New College, Leicester
16th March 2013
by Pavel Todorov
Following the regional floor and vault a big congratulations is in order for all the boys that competed. The quality of the performances and professionalism of the young boys made them stand out.
The under 7’s displayed flawless performances on the floor, showing great composure and style. Colbi Curtis took the Bronze, Tommy Farrell the Silver and a perfect handspring vault executed by Kayden Kennedy wowed the judges and secured him the Gold.
The under 8's was a much tighter competition with many boys entered. Again the boys performed well on the floor with a few minor mistakes on the vault. Bailey Yates took the gold under pressure after a well-executed floor routine.
The older boys provided some exciting performances and a highly difficult floor routine from Joshua Newstead with advanced tumbling secured him first place.
Calum Hutchison outclassed his opponents for the gold medal in his category - U14.
Frazer Deabill lost agonizingly close a medal reward by 0.05 in U12 category.
Again a big well done to all the boys who competed!
British Championships, Echo Arena, Liverpool
22-24 March 2013
The British Championships took place over three days and offered a chance for the senior gymnasts to finally display new routines and demonstrate the many new and improved skills that they had learnt. For many, it was the first competition in a long time and performing in a large arena on a podium proves a daunting task.
The boys however held their nerve and pulled off some great performances, impressing the tough judges and vast crowd with how far they had progressed!
It was the very first competition on podium for Andrew Plant (Youth), Sam Woodford (Junior) and Jake Houtby (Senior). Sam Woodford performed an impressive Tsukahara 2/1t Vault to score 14.00
Jake Houtby came 14th All Around. For Andrew Smith, this was a warm up competition before the World Cup in Doha in a week’s time, and he performed only on Floor and Pommel Horse. Sam Hunter experienced an old injury and was forced to perform on 4 apparatus only.
The results from this competition show that the senior boys have a lot of potential, and the future is looking bright and exciting.
2013 FIG World Challenge Cup, Doha, Qatar
27-29 March 2013
Andy Smith took part in the 2013 FIG World Challenge Cup series.
Andy Smith
Some 140 gymnasts representing a total of 33 different countries were registered to compete at the event that took place for the sixth consecutive year since its launch in 2008.
After kick off on the 21 – 24th March in Cottbus (GER), Doha was the second stopover of the 2013 FIG World Challenge Cup series.
Andy Smith from NGA (representing Ireland) competed at the Doha World Cup qualification round and qualified in joined second place with a score of 14.800 to compete in the Floor final. Two days later he scored 14.425 to finish in respectable 5th place at the Doha World Cup in Qatar.
Well done and keep it up Andy!
