Young gymnasts deliver success in Isle of Man

Many of the gymnasts only train one hour per week and are just starting out in the sport.

A lot of these youngsters came away with medals for both individual pieces and champions of their age category.

City of Preston won every category that the club entered gymnasts in, an outstanding achievement.

On the same weekend, some of the club's higher-level gymnasts competed at a Regional Grades competition in Salford against clubs from all over the North West.

This is the official grading for the region with clubs from all over the North West competing; gymnasts get just one chance each year at passing their grade at this large event.

The team from Preston had a 100% pass rate of their grades, gaining many distinctions.

There are six regional grades and a total of eight categories.

City of Preston Gymnasts achieved some of the region’s highest apparatus scores and dominated podium places, with six out of eight County Overall Champions in Lancashire grades and three adding an additional trophy each with Regional North West champions double winners.

Some categories had more than60 children competing and for every event the club entered, there was a band of City of Preston Gymnasts taking the name slots of the top section of the results table.

In two weeks time more than 200 children from the club will compete in a four-piece competition held at Preston where clubs from over the North West will attend. In the coming months, some of the club’s gymnasts will compete for the first time at the Åland Invitational in Finland in April and Preston are currently selecting gymnasts for the Malta GymStars International Women’s Artistic Competition in July.

Preston will then resume training sessions and competitions over in USA.

Before the global pandemic, the club regularly visited centres in Boston, Chicago and their gymnasts even trained with Olympic and World Champion Simone Biles and her coaches at her club in Texas.

Then in 2023 the club will travel to Costa Rica for an International competition.