A fantastic 5 days at the Turin Acrobatic Cup saw our amazing gymnasts come home with an outstanding 3 Gold medals, a Silver a Bronze and a 4th place finish. On top of this, these guys - aged from 9 to 18 - showed the most fantastic team spirit imaginable. On and off the competition floor, through the moments of elation and the moments of heartbreak, they were always there for each other, at work and play! So, so proud of everyone and to have been part of this fantastic team.
A new gallery will be uploaded soon - keep checking back!
Lucy and Ellie have done the double, taking their second international Gold in Geneva in what was only their second international competition!
Report and a few photographs have been added to the main site.
What a weekend at the National Finals – so proud of everyone! Some truly inspiring performances resulted in a fantastic two Gold, Two Silver and 2 fifth place finishes against the best in UK. Lucy and Ellie excelled, winning the Grade 5 Women’s Pairs despite Ellie being really unwell throughout the competition, huge credit to Lucy for keeping her going! Kirsten, Sophie and Lara comfortably took the Gold in the Grade 5 groups and Elspeth, Georgia and Esme really impressed with their positivity in a tough battle for the IDP Silver medal. Heidi and Annie absolutely shone to take the Grade 4 Silver in their first National Finals together and Ilka and Maddie, Bella, Ruby and Lucy did themselves proud with PB performances at grade 3 to finish 5th in UK. Big thanks to all our supporters who really made a difference, especially to Matilda, Annie and Esmee our grade 4 Trio who heartrendingly had to withdraw through injury just one week ago, but still came to support their team mates – so impressed guys.
A new gallery is being prepared with photos and a report coming soon.
In a high quality competition our two Grade 5 partnerships both won Gold, repeating their earlier success at the Scottish International. The similarities continued when Sophie, Kirsten and Lara were awarded the trophy for the highest score across all Grade 5 categories and competitors; mirroring the achievement of Lucy and Ellie, who received the same acolade in Scotland.
Photos from the competition will be posted soon.
Five partnerships took part in the respected King Edmund Open Competition, which had attracted a huge entry from some of the top clubs in the country. Over the 2 days of competition, our Grade 3 Trio of Catriona, Jas' and Molly took the Silver medal, while their team mates in the Grade 3 Pairs, Ilke and Maddie, took the Bronze in a hotly contested class. Heidi and Annie, competing in the popular Grade 4 pairs which had attracted a huge entry of 46 partnerships were just beaten to the Bronze, losing out by just 0.05 of a mark; a nonetheless excellent result in only their second competition together.
Photos of some of the routines will be added soon.
Two partnerships from Oxford competed at the Scottish Invitational, a new competition for the club and both won Gold in their categories. Our grade 5 Pair of Lucy and Ellie also won the trophy for the highest score in their class!
Photos will be added soon.
26 November was an outstanding day at the South of England Acrobatic Championships where every one of our 11 partnerships finished in the top 3. Seven Golds, 2 Silver a Bronze and a 2nd place for our New Grade 5 Trio's Balance Routine rounded off a great day! Proud of everyone for all the hard work that led to these fantastic results, particularly our newcomers who absolutely shone!
Over the weekend of 22 and 23 October, 4 partnerships competed at the first Mike Walker Invitational, a new competition hosted by Southampton Gym Club in honour of the coach that started the club and who was a major influence in the development of Acrobatic Gymnastics in GB.
Our Grade 5 Womens Pair took Gold in both the Balance and Dynamic competitions, while our Grade 5 Trio took the Bronze for Their Dynamic Routine. Our newly formed Grade 3 Trio, competing in the regional competition for gymnasts that train no more than 6 hours a week, took the Gold and our new Grade 4 Partnership took a well deserved 4th place, missing out on the Bronze by just 0.08 of a mark and promising much for the future!
A new gallery of pictures from the wekeend will be up soon.
Our 12-18 Womens Group of Elspeth, Aysha and Samara performed their last routines together at the British Championships, which marked the retirement from the sport of of two of the Trio, Aysha and Samara.
Held at the prestigious Echo Arena, the occasion was all the more poignant as not only was it their final performance together, it was also the first and only time that Aysha and Samara had competed at a British Championships.
Good luck Aysha and Samara! You can look back with great pride at your achievements over the years - its been a fantastic journey for you both and we will all miss you!
See more on this story along with photographs in the new Britsh Championships Gallery.
On 14 and 15 May, the British Gymnastics Acrobatic National Finals were held at Fenton Manor, Stoke on Trent. Five Oxford partnerships had qualified to compete in this major event by winning their regional heats earlier in the year and as such, were up against the best in their class from across the 13 regions of the UK.
In what was to be our best ever Nationals, every one of our 5 partnerships performed at their absolute best - and every one of them medalled, winning a Gold, 3 Silver and a Bronze in highly competitive and nail biting contests. This was a fantastic result and just reward for all the hard work over many weeks of build-up. Huge congratulations to everyone!
A new gallery is now up and many more photos, courtesy of Julia Jolly will be added soon.
5 partnerships entered and 5 partnerships came away with medals! Three Gold and 2 Silver were won by the Clubs FIG Squad during the course of a very long but satisfying and well organised 12 hour day at the first NDGA International Cup, Tunbridge Wells, Kent. Photos of the medal winners are now in the gallery.
Team Oxford - what a fantastic performance! 5 Gold medals in the National prelims, so a record 5 partnerships qualify for the National Finals! 3 more Gold medals in the Regional competiton - all to partnerships competing for the first time - and a further Silver and a so-close 4th place (with a score 28.05!) wrapped up a brilliant day. So proud of you all!
A full report and more photos of the routines will be available soon
The now traditional season opener, the highly regarded Heathrow Invitational, saw 6 partnerships compete against some of the best clubs in the country over the course of a very long day. Their hard work was rewarded with 2 Golds, a Silver, a Bronze and 2 very close 4th place finishes. Two further partnerships performed one of their two routines as part of their continued development and build up. As such, they were not eligible to compete for medals.
Photographs from the day, the vast majority courtesy of Julia Jolly, are now being added to the Gallery and a full report will be available shortly.
Some great new photos of the Regional Championships are now available thanks to Julia Jolly - some lovely candid shots among them that really capture some special moments.
Some more photos have been added to the British Championships 2015 Gallery, which now includes pictures of our 13-19 Trio as well as some additional pictures of the Sen.iors
Three partnerships represented the club at the 2015 South of England Regional Championships, all of them performing personal best routines, to win 2 gold medals and a Silver over the course of the day.Congratulations guys, you were brilliant! Photographs of the medal winners and a report for the event are now up.
On 27 November, our now retired Senior Trio, along with their Coach Emma Parr and friends and family of the girls, attended the Oxfordshire Sports Awards Presentations Dinner. The club had been short-listed for the prestigious Sports Team of the Year award and to the huge delight of everyone present - we won! This was a fabulous achievement as the category is open to every sport and every club in the county. As such, this award is something that everyone has played a part in achieving and of which we can all be extremely proud!
Our Senior Trio of Bex Evans, Gabs Jackson and Heather Nixey won Gold and claimed the 2015 British Championship title at the Echo Arena in Liverpool on 2 August; an amazing achievement against all the odds! A new gallery with photos of this momentous occasion will be up soon.
4 Gold, 2 Silver, a Bronze and a 4th place finish made the Clubs first International competiton for 2 years an event that will be long remembered!
A full report, results and photographs of our amazing 5 days in Turin will be added to the new gallery over the coming days. Keep checking back - there will be a lot of pictures!
On 28 June, 6 partnerships took part on the MK Springers Open Competition competing in grades 2 and 3. Five categories were entered and when the results were announced at the end of the day, our gymnasts were absolutely delighted to find that they had won Gold in every single one of them, along with a further Bronze medal in the one category where we had 2 entries. Congratulations to everyone who took part, fantastic results all round!
the first photos are now up in the gallery and more will be added once we are back from the Turin Acro Cup in Mid July!
A brilliant week end at the Acrobatic National Finals where our 5 partnerships took on the best from across UK and won 4 medals: a Gold, 2 Silver and a Bronze, along with a 5th place GB ranking, which was just 5/100ths of a mark off another Bronze medal. Outstanding results, amazing gymnasts - so proud of you all. Particular thanks to all who came to support and especially to Laura Stockwell, our newest coach who put so much into the success of the partnerships and who had to watch nervously from the crowd!
On 2 & 3 May, 6 Oxford partnerships took part in the Inter Regional Championships as members of the South of England Team. By the end of the week end, we had won 4 medals and the team had not only won, but retained the Championship Trophy for a second year!
A new gallery with photos and results is now in the process of being uploaded.
Outstanding results across the board at the National Prelims today, 12 partnerships entered: 4 Gold, 4 Silver, 3 Bronze and a PB, with 5 partnerships qualifying for the National Finals! And not forgetting our Junior International Trio who also took Gold in their competition. Just brilliant from everyone - so professional and richly deserved reward for all the hard work during build up.
A new Gallery is in progress and full results will be available soon.
On 25 January, 6 partnerships from Oxford competed in the Second Heathrow Open. All of the partnerships were new and 4 of the gymnasts, Ellie, Jasmine, Mungo and Toby were taking part in their very first competition.
By the end of the day, we had won 2 Gold, a Silver and 2 Bronze medals, taken a hard fought 5th place and been placed 3rd, by just 0.01 of a mark, in the Team Competition. It was a great way to start the year and just reward for the long hours of hard work that the guys had put into their build up.
Three partnerships competed at the National Finals over the weekend of 31 May to 1 June and each one came home with a medal! You can read a report on the Event in the new gallery; pictures will be added over the next few days.
Some new pictures have been added to these galleries thanks to Katie Martin, one of our gymnasts!
On 3 May, the Grade 2 Trio of Bryony, Matilda and Lara represented the Southern Region as part of the Team entered in the nationwide Inter-Regional Trophy Competiton. Competing against some of the best gymnasts in the country, including those from Scotland and Wales as well as the English regions, the girls gave a fantastic performance, achieving a personal best score of 27.77. In a nail biting finish, the girls just missed out on the Gold medal to their rivals from Southampton, who beat them by just 0.13.
The girls had also been selected as one of the 5 Southern Region partnerships who's marks would count towards the hotly contested Inter-Regional Trophy. Their high scoring performance was crucial to the Regions final points tally and to the delight of the whole team, Southern Region finished in 1st place and are the 2014 Inter-Regional Champions.
Finally, the event also marked the end of the Trio as all of the girls are moving on to new partnerships as they continue their acrobatic careers. It was a fitting way to end a short but highly successful time together. Congratulations guys, you were fabulous!
The Briitsh Championships in March 2014 marked the end of an era for two of the clubs most outstanding Gymnasts when we said good bye to Emily and Freya, who 'retired' from acrobatic gymnastics after fantastic careers of nearly 10 years each with the Club. The girls During their time they both took many national and international honours and fulfilled their dream to represent their country and compete for GB. In doing so, they both came home with medals including European Gold for Em and a World Silver Medal for Freya. All of this was achieved as under 16s - an amazing achievement! We will miss you guys - its been an absolute pleasure to know you. Look back with pride on everything you have done, you so deserve it - you are a big part of the Clubs history!
I've wanted to have a go at shooting and editing some videos of the guys training and competing for some time and my first 2 attempts are now up and available to view.
Better late than never, the gallery for the Pat Wade Classic is up and captioning of the pictures is ongoing. An emotional and intensely competitive week end ultimately produced some of our best results ever for this competition!
Fantastic results at the Regional Championships on Saturday 9 November. Photos and a report form the event are being uploaded over the next few days.
The Annual Awards Presentation Evening was held on 14 July. Photos and a report on what was a great evening celebrating the success of our gymnasts are now available in the new gallery.
I think this is the biggest Gallery to date - 215 pictures of a fantastic week in Italy. A full report can be found on the club website here: http://www.oxfordschoolofgymnastics.com/competitionsresults.html
Finally have some time to start adding photos to the Turin International gallery. There are a lot - so keep checking back!
Between 5-7 July, a team of 25 gymnasts and staff took part in the 1st Turin Acro Cup, an international competition attended by 11 countries and over 220 gymnasts. In a great 3 days of competition, every partnership, the majority having never competed outside of UK, did themselves proud both on and off the competition floor. Everyone qualified for the Finals, which led to a nail biting last day of competition. The final results were:
Gold: Junior Women's Groups.
Gold: Junior Women's Pairs.
Silver: Senior Women's Pairs.
4th, 5th & 6th: Age Group Women's Groups.
Full Report and many more photos will be added soon!
Reports for the Southern Region Tournament and Inter-Regional Championships have been added and the associated galleries started. We need more photos of both events, so if anyone has any that they would like to offer for the web site, please contact me. Thanks!
The 2013 Acrobatic British Championships was held on 13 and 14 April at Fenton Manor, with 4 partnerships taking part across all 4 International competition categories. All of the gymnasts were competing in new partnerships and/or at a higher level than previously.
Our 11-16 Age Group Trio of Emily, Freya and Grace, just missed out on a place in the finals, but did themselves proud and gained valuable experience for the future.
Full Report and photos coming soon!
The King Edmund International is a respected, high quality competition attracting entries from the top acro clubs in the UK and entries from Europe and beyond. It was also the first event for 9 months for the clubs FIG squad, all of whom were in new partnerships, many also competing at their particular level for the first time.
In a tough two days of competition the club took a Gold and 2 Bronze - and everyone gained valuable experience, which will stand them in good stead as we approach the British Championships.
Everyone learned a lot from this high quality competition and gained valuable experience, which will stand them in good stead as we approach the British Championships!
This gallery is now in progress. Many thanks to Clare Newell, Steve Allen, Gary Mahdoo and Carl Ferber for some great pictures.
Between May 2012 and March 2013, the club took a conscious decision not to participate in any competitions in order to let new partnerships concentrate, uninterupted, on a period of developmental work. That period is now coming to an end and the Squad is refocussing on preparation and build-up for the first competitons of 2013.
This gallery shows some of the developmental work that has been achieved in the last 9 months.
3 Gold and 3 Silver at the Southern Region National Prelims!
The first event of 2013 saw a large Oxford entry competing in the Southern Region Preliminaries for a place in the National Finals. Only the winners of each group go through to the Finals, so the stakes for this event are always high. In addition, a large number of our girls were competing for the first time ever, or were performing in a new partnership, so there was considerable excitement as well as the usual nerves.
At the end of the day, we had secured 2 places in the National Finals, 2 silvers and a further Gold and Silver in the Tier 2 competition. Everyone did themselves proud!
The gallery pictures are now up and a full report will be added shortly along with photo captions.
Update 12 March: All done - report and captions are complete!
The annual Christmas Display took place over the weekend of 15-16 December. Three sell-out audiences enjoyed a variety of individual and group routines, ranging from the spectacular and powerful opening item "Titanic," performed by the FIG squad, to disney classics by our very youngest gymnasts who charmed the audience with their enthusiasm and individual style!
The annual Christmas party saw nearly 80 gymnasts of all ages getting together to enjoy the traditional end of year celebration. The theme was "Im a Gymnast - Get me out of here" with some suitably wacky party games to keep everyone entertained.
In 2009, Two partnerships were selected to represent Great Britain at the Samokov International in Bulgaria. Chris and Beth and Cath, Rosie and Emily had earned their place in the GB Team by finishing in the top 4 at the British Championships earlier in the year; Emma was selected to accompany them as their Coach. The team came back with 2 Gold, 1 Silver and a Bronze medal; a fantastic result for everyone.
On 28 July, the Club held its first internal Individual Elements and Tumbling competitions. Open to all gymnasts covering every level of experience and age (from the youngest to the oldest), competitors had to perform a sequence of elements in front of an audience. In the Tumbling competition, gymnasts had to complete 3 separate tumbling runs, which they had individually chosen from a 'pick-list.' The event proved to be a big success with some great performances by our youngest gymnasts, many of whom were competing for the first time.
The photographs in the gallery show the 'before and after' activity and the medal presentations for the Individual Elements Competition.
The work to upload all of the photographs that I currently have is now complete - there is still some captioning work to be done for some of the earlier pictures, but thats all that is left to do!
However, there are still plenty of gaps in the photographic coverage of the club, particulary from 2003 to 2006, so if any club members have pictures that they would like to contribute - of any event and for any year - I would be delighted to see them!
These 2 galleries are now finished and are complete with competition reports.
Pete Woodliffe-Thomas has taken some lovely natural shots of some of the clubs younger gymnasts in their early days - some of them are still around today and feature in the later galleries.
More great pictures from the earlier years of the Club, courtesy of Pete Woodliffe-Thomas. Report for the event still to come.
Another great set of photos provided by Gabby Jackson are in the course of being uploaded to this gallery. Many of the gymnasts pictured are still competing today, some 6 years later - its a fascinating look back!
Thanks to Gabby Jackson, who has provided a huge number of photographs for the 2010 Regional Championships, I have now created a separate folder for this event and will upload the pictures over the next couple of days
This will be quite a large gallery, so bear with me as it will take a little time to upload. The Podium Training shots are up and pictures of the first day of qualfiyng are in progress.
Thank you to Paul Newell for taking the podium training pictures!
On 16 June, the club held its first Awards Presentation Evening, which was a huge success. Club members can view the gallery by using the usual password
Pete Woodliffe-Thomas has kindly provided some pictures of the 2009 Southern Region Prelims that have now been added to a re-named British Championships Gallery.
The Summer Fun Day pics have also been added for Club members only
With some great photos courtesy of Pete Woodliffe-Thomas, the Saltney Classic gallery, which saw Oxford win 5 Gold, 2 Silver, a Bronze - and retain the Team Trophy for a second year is now up.
The vast majority of the galleries are now open for public viewing, however if you do find one that is locked, its simply because the content is exclusive to members of the club.
Club members - you can unlock protected galleries with the password you have been given. If you need a reminder, please drop me an e-mail and I will be happy to oblige.
Oxford had 3 partnerships selected to represent the Southern Region at the NDP Finals and came home with Bronze Silver and Gold! But it was a week-end of high drama and emotion for our Womens Group who recovered from a crippling points deduction (through no fault of their own) to fight back from 5th to win the Silver medal with theri second routine - a real testament to their determination and courage
And thanks to Pete Woodliffe-Thomas for providing some additional photos for this Gallery!
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In 2009, the club took a large squad of gymnasts to Belgium to compete in the internationally recognised and respected Flanders Cup. We came back with 2 Gold medals, some great experience and fantastic memories. This is a big gallery so its going to take a few days to complete the uploading and captioning - but the first pictures are up.
In 2009, BG announced that the top 4 partnerships in each category at the British Championships would also be invited to compete for GB in a European event later in the year. The stakes were therefore particularly high and a top 4 finish was the goal of all the Oxford gymnasts. However, in a competition that Carrie (Joint Head Coach) later described as the most stressful ever, there was to be both happiness and heartbreak. For the full story, why not have alook through the gallery!
In October 2010, Becky and Megan represented GB at the European Championships in the 11-16 AG Womens Pairs. It was to be a bitter-sweet occasion as after 2 years of dedication and single minded determination, they had finally achieved their goal to compete for Great Britain - but it would also be the only time that they would do so, as both girls were moving on to new partnerships at the end of the Championships.
Mainly medal podium pictures and squad pictures across a range of competitions. 2010 was to prove to be one of the Clubs most sucessful years - This was the start...........
See pictures of medal winners and the Squad at the annual King Edmund Open International, Bristol.
Photos of the team and medal winners at the 2010 Southern Region Championships, the 'Worlds Girls' winning the Oxfordshire Junior Sports Team of the Year Award and Christmas display rehersals have now been uploaded. Some captioning work still to do.
This was the first event that I photographed and its fascinating to look back on, as some of the gymnasts in the pictures are still in the club today (2012). A number of others who have since retired or left the club also feature. Some of them, both past and present, have since gone on to become British, European and World medalists.
So, with apologies to those gymnasts that are still in the club and who will doubtless want to 'hunt me down' for posting these pictures of them (when they were still 'cute'!!!), enjoy this nostalgic look back at their early years; because from these beginnings, future champions were - and will be - made.
Last photos uploaded, including the Finals, the party and some fo the last days activities at the hotel. Great memories of a great week. Hope we can do it again sometime.
The first pictures of a memorable trip to Flanders in 2011 are now up - there are many more to come so please bear with me if it takes a little while to complete.
Just got back from the British NDP Finals at Fenton where we had 3 partnerships competing at Grades 1 & 2. Great routines and great results in a very tight competition, particularly as some of the girls were competing in their first British Final. A few shots posted tonight in a new gallery, the rest will hopefully be added in the next few days. Congratulations guys - you were fantastic - you did yourselves and the Club proud.
Edit 21 May: Gallery now complete!
In July 2010, a Trio from Oxford represented GB at the World Acro Championships in Poland - and returned with the Silver medal! I have just added a gallery, which tells the story of this amazing achievement and the trials and tribulations along the way that tested the girls dedication and friendship to the very limit.
Been meaning to start this site for a long time! First galleries for 2012 have been added and work started on 2011. This will take a bit of time as 2011 was a busy year with an international trip to Flanders to cover, as well as entries in the British Championships, British Tournament and the regional competitions.