Arun gymnasts' medal cabinet is filling fast

Molly Evans, one of the club’s elite gymnasts, competed at the women’s artistic invitational competition for higher-level gymnasts in Horsham, where fantastic performances on the four individual pieces saw her finish third overall. She put in a confident beam routine which saw her grace and style rewarded with first place and she was also first with a beautifully-choreographed floor routine. A strong vault placed her third and a steady routine on the bars saw her placed fourth, enough to give her a well-deserved bronze. In May, 14 recreational gymnasts made the trip to Burgess Hill for the Sussex novice and intermediate four-piece competition where they had great success, winning medals in all of the categories they entered and ending the day with a massive 33 medals. Ruby Bowditch and Ruby Hammond competed in the eight-year-old novice girls’ group and Ruby had the better competition, winning gold for her excellent vault. Arun gymnasts dominated the eight and nine-year-old intermediate girls’ category, where they won a superb 16 medals. Sophie Horn finished in overall first place as she swept up three golds and a silver. Kseniya Kagarova was second overall, also winning a total of five medals with a further gold, silver and two bronzes, while Olivia Hepburn finished third overall with another five-medal haul from two silvers and two bronzes. Abi Holmes won a share of silver for her floor display. Daisy Donoghue and Molly Ireland were Arun’s representatives in the ten and 11-year-olds’ intemediate competition where Daisy’s spirited performances saw her win silver for vault and bronze for bars. In round two, Arun’s gymnasts won six more medals with all three girls coming away with something. They were all competing in the nine-year-old novice girls’ category, which because of the large number of competitors was split into two birth-date groups. Christina Pollington, in the July-December category, proved a star in the making, winning four gold medals in her first competition for the club. She finished overall first place with stunning performances on the vault, beam and bars that saw win all three. Georgina Reynolds and Lucy Hijmans were both competing in the January-June group and came away with a medal for their wonderful floor routines with Georgina winning silver and Lucy bronze. Round three saw Arun’s Hannah Anwyl and Daisy May Jones win another seven medals in the 11-year-old novice girls’ group. Hannah had a fantastic competition, taking first place overall with another superb five-medal haul including three gold medals for floor, vault and bars and a bronze for beam. Daisy May won two bronze medals for her strong performances on vault and beam. Isabel Foster was Arun’s only representative in the ten-year-old girls’ novice competition and she kept up the medal chase with a wonderful silver medal for her superb vault. Meanwhile, Emily Day and Libby Morton, two of the elite gymnasts at Arun, competed at the Sussex individual apparatus championships where they came away with a total of five medals. Libby Morton proved to be Arun’s golden girl when she swept the board in the bronze eight and nine-year-olds competition, with superb performances seeing her finish first on all four pieces of apparatus and ending the day with four golds. Emily was competing in the bronze 12-14-year-olds’ competition and managed three top-ten apparatus finishes from a total of 22 competitors, with her best performance coming from a really strong vault that earned her second place and silver. Head coach Mandy Hawkins has been delighted with the gymnasts’ performances over the past few competitions and, with such an excellent haul of medals, she believes the future looks very promising for the club.