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3 Gold and 3 Silver at 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 as they gathered in the warm-up gym.

The Tier 2 competition, which is for gymnasts who train less than 6 hours a week opened the event and provided immediate success for Oxford. April and Lana produced a very confident routine to take the Gold in the Grade 1 Pairs category, closely followed by Ella and Hattie who took the Silver; an Oxford One-Two was a great way to start!

In the Grade 1 Pairs category, 3 new partnerships (Katie and Anna, Beth and Elsa, Georgia and Esme) were competing for the first time. For many of them, this was also their first competition. With 2 of the 3 partnerships being ‘out of age,’ this was all about gaining experience from performing at a big regional event and every partnership did themselves proud, controlling their nerves and giving solid performances that bode well for the future.

Elspeth, Kirsten and Charlotte performed in the Grade 1 Groups category and scored an excellent 27.65, frustratingly missing out on first place by just 0.05 of a mark. A similar fate befell Aysha and Bryony in the Grade 2 Pairs, who despite being on a much lower Difficulty Tarrif than the eventual winners, only just missed out on the Gold by the same 0.05 margin.

No such frustrations affected our Grade 2 Trio of Xenia, Molly and Victoria, who produced a classy performance, really looking the part and comprehensively beating the opposition to take the Gold medal and with it, a place in the National Finals.

For Abi, Eve and Lucy, the build-up to the event had been difficult; all of them having to ‘dig deep,’ both mentally and physically to get themselves to the point from which they could be real contenders for the National Finals. At Grade 3, two Routines are required and performing their stronger Balance Routine first, the girls finished the morning with a clear lead. However, a shaky warm-up had everyone’s heart pounding as they stepped onto the floor for their Dynamic Routine. They would be the first to admit that it wasn’t a ‘vintage’ performance, but when it mattered most they delivered, controlling their nerves and showing real courage to win the Gold medal! It was a great end to an ‘emotional’ day.

A huge well-done to the whole team and particularly our National Finalists - and a big thank you to the ever vocal Oxford supporters, our floor marshallers - Cossie and Laura - and to Gabbie, our newly qualified level 2 coach.