GYMNASTICS: Schools battle out Grantham Championship titles

Grantham Schools Gymnastics Championships were held at The Meres leisure centre last Sunday.

There was success for Cliffedale, Long Bennington and Allington with Sedgebrook in the Primary team competitions, with King’s and KGGS taking the Secondary team awards.

Walton took individual success with Ruby Parke in the U16 Novice and Lila Ede in the Advanced competition. KGGS won the U13 Novice with Elizabeth Hewitt, U13 Intermediate with Ella Walker and U16 Intermediate with Millie Inman.

Only a few tenths separated the highest positions in most categories but the Advanced competition was extremely tight right up to the final routines. After the set routines Alisha Shepherd (PRA) was ahead of Savannah Brook (KGGS) in second and Lila Ede (W) and Scarlet Heaton (KGGS) equal third. The voluntaries produced high, consistent scores for Lila to take the lead, just ahead of Savannah by 0.05, with Alisha also just 0.05 behind in bronze position.

In the boys’ competitions, Kyle Davidson from Priory Ruskin Academy produced the highest vault score of the morning with 9.5 to take the U16 title whilst, at U13 level Joe Taylor (PRA) and Jake Dawson (King’s) both produced 9.3 vaults, but Joe just had the edge on the floor to take the title.

In the Primary competitions, the U9 and U11 girls were as always pretty close, with only 0.2 separating the top two positions. Mariella Morris (Corby Glen) took first place ahead of team-mates Emily Parczuk and Molly Ludlam (both Long Bennington) to take the U9 title, with Wiktoria De Andrade Pontes (St Mary’s) equalling Harriet Johnson (St Anne’s) on floor but managing to produce a slightly higher vault to win the U11 girls.

In the youngest age group, Belton Lane’s Miley Austin easily took the U7 title, with Hollie Clements from St Mary’s in the runners-up spot and Caelan Kendrick, also St Mary’s, the highest placed boy in the U7 boys.

In the other boys’ competitions, Raj Mistry (Cliffedale) scored 9.0 on the vault to help towards his first placed tie in the U9s with Ashton Fitt (A with S), who produced the highest boys’ score on the floor of 8.6.

In the U11 boys, only 0.2 separated the first three places, with Freddie Woods from National just ahead of Alexis Patrinos (St Mary’s) and Alfie Webb (National)

In the Primary Advanced competition, nine girls competed on four pieces of apparatus, with both set and voluntary routines, to find the overall winner.

After some very high set scores from all of the girls, Cliffedale’s Alex Boland was just ahead of team-mates Ruby Carthew, Ella Townsend and Olivia Celik.

The voluntary floor brought in artistry and musical interpretation, which Ruby used to full advantage and produced a quality 9.6 for her beautiful sequence to finally place her first overall, with Ella Townsend 0.5 behind and Lilliya Greene (St Mary’s) and Alex Boland tying for third place.

Results: U7 Girls, 1 Miley Austin – Belton Lane – 17.7, 2 Hollie Clements – St Mary’s – 16.7, 3 Lola Wood – St Mary’s – 16.3; U7 Boys, 1 Caelan Kendrick – St Mary’s – 16.6; U9 Girls, 1 Mariella Morris – Corby Glen – 19.1, 2= Emily Parczuk – Long Bennington – 18.9, 2= Molly Ludlam – Long Bennington – 18.9.

U9 Girls Team – Long Bennington; U9 Boys, 1 Raj Mistry – Cliffedale – 16.6, 1 Ashton Fitt – Allington & Sedgebrook – 16.6, 3 Daniel Thompson – Cliffedale – 15.3.

U11 Girls, 1 Wiktoria de Andrade Pontes – St Mary’s – 18.5, 2 2 Harriet Johnson – St Anne’s – 18.3, 3= Darcey McCulloch – National – 18.2, 3= Connie Phillips – Barkston & Syston – 18.2, 3= Lottie Beaverstock – Grantham Preparatory – 18.2; U11 Girls Team - Cliffedale; U11 Boys, 1 Freddie Woods – National – 15.7, 2 Alexis Patrinos – St Mary’s – 15.6, 3 Alfie Webb – National – 15.5.

Primary Boys Team – Allington with Sedgebrook; Girls Primary Advanced, 1 Ruby Carthew – Cliffedale – 37.3, 2 Ella Townsend – Cliffedale – 36.8, 3= Lilliya Greene – St Mary’s – 36.7, 3= Alex Boland – Cliffedale – 36.7.

U13 Girls Novice, 1 Elizabeth Hewitt – KGGS – 17.2, 2= Hunni-Mae Gray – KGGS – 17.1, 2= Dominka Pasik – Walton – 17.1; U13 Intermediate, 1 Ella Walker – KGGS – 17.75, 2 Isla Pexton – Priory Ruskin Academy – 17.6, 3 Alice Heaton – Sir William Robertson Academy – 17.2; U13 Girls Team – KGGS.

U16 Girls Novice, 1 Ruby Parke – Walton – 17.4, 2 Bethany Richardson – KGGS – 17.2, 3 Kerrie Wing – Walton – 16.5; U16 Girls Intermediate, 1 Millie Inman – KGGS – 18.0, 2 Megan Pocock – KGGS – 17.45, 3 Abbie Phillips – Priory Ruskin Academy – 17.4; U16 Girls Team – KGGS.

U13 Boys, 1 Joe Taylor – Priory Ruskin Academy – 18.2, 2 Jake Dawson – King’s – 18.0, 3= Toby Doughty – Priory Ruskin Academy – 17.3, 3= Jack Barnes – King’s – 17.3; U13 Boys Team – King’s.

U16 Boys, 1 Kyle Davidson – Priory Ruskin Academy – 18.7, 2 Tom Charley – Priory Ruskin Academy – 18.1, 3 Lucas Kokocinski – Priory Ruskin Academy – 17.3.

Secondary Girls Advanced, 1 Lila Ede – Walton – 36.05, 2 Savannah Brook – KGGS – 36.0, 3 Alisha Shepherd – Priory Ruskin Academy – 35.95.