On 12 April, members of the FIG squad travelled to Belgium to take part in the Flanders International Acrobatics Cup. As well as being an established European Open competition, FIAC also hosted the first of 4 official World Cup events for 2011, attracting senior teams from across the World. This status had resulted in an unprecedented sixteen countries entering the FIAC Open competition, which was run under full International conditions and as a result, had attracted a larger and more competitive field than the previous year’s European Championships. Having settled into their quirky, but comfortable hotel (located in the yard of a working Brewery!), the girls took advantage of 2 days of training before the start of the qualifying rounds and a relaxing afternoon of sight-seeing and shopping in the historic town of Mechelen.
After 2 days of intense qualifying and to the delight of the whole team and its loyal band of very vocal supporters, all of the Oxford gymnasts made it through to their respective finals. This was a great achievement, particularly for our 2 young Trios’ who were competing at this level for the very first time – and also for our Junior Pair, Steph and Emerald who had struggled with injury through much of their build-up. Everyone gave personal best performances and improved on their qualifying results, while Becky and Freya also won the 11-16 Women’s Pairs Bronze Medal, only just being pipped to the Silver by the current British Champions. It was a fantastic week and a memorable experience, which was rounded off with a noisy farewell party.
Categories & Keywords
Category:Sports
Subcategory:Gymnastics
Subcategory Detail:
Keywords:FIAC, Flanders, acrobatics, british, championships, gymnastics, international, medal winners, oxford school of gymnastics