Saturday 3^rd June saw the Nottinghamshire Level 6 and 7 County Championships take place with strong representation from Notts Gymnastics Academy across both levels of competition.

Our young gymnasts produced confident performances across all 4 apparatus and did the Academy proud with some fantastic results!

Congratulations to everyone who took part, you did #TEAMNOTTS proud! Plus, well done to all of the gymnasts who medalled at the event!

Please see the full list of competitors and their medal placings below:

Level 6 In-Age

Miley Austin - 2^nd VT, 3^rd BB, 2^nd FX, 2^nd AA

Summer Yeeles – 3^rd FX, 3^rd AA

Imogen Beardsley Wren – 2^nd VT, 2^nd UB

Pippa Jackson

Skye Oliver

Florence Granton- Crow

Naomi Hopper

Ruby Homles

Orla Hutchinson

Freda- Farris Dinsdale

Poppy Williams

Level 6 Open Age

Amelie Smith – 3^rd UB, 2^nd BB, 1^st FX

Isla Skedge – 3^rd VT

Lohtus Sharpe – 3^rd BB

Jessica Stevens

Kieley Brown

Tess Billingham – 2^nd UB

Florence Townsend

Sophie Redgate – 1^st VT, 1^st UB, 1^st BB

Yasmin Kapila – 3^rd UB, 3^rd FX

Faith Wright - 2^nd UB

Ruby Thatcher – 3^rd VT

Melana Dahfnis- Luengo – 2^nd BB

Cherry- May Briggs

Matilda Rayner

Level 7 Open Age

Megan Moss

Mia MacNaughtan

Olivia Hardy

Sunday 13^th May saw the country’s best 10 and 11 year-old gymnasts in competition at the British Compulsory 2 event. Passing this grade is an important step towards a gymnast qualifying to the British Championships and so the entrants were competing to achieve a required pass mark as well as against each other.

Notts Gymnastics Academy had two participants in the competition, Beatrice Hill and Grace Davies. Both gymnasts performed fantastically and represented Notts with outstanding poise and confidence.

Beatrice earned top 10 placings on vault, beam and range and conditioning – an extra routine performed for grades competitions to test gymnast’s, flexibility and strength.

Beatrice’s performance on beam was particularly impressive given that she placed 5^th in the competition having counted a fall, which is testament to the quality of the rest of her routine which demonstrated mastery of the skills as well as excellent artistry.

Grace also secured top 10 placings on vault and floor where she showed her remarkable power, in addition to her new choreography for 2018 which engaged the judges and audience alike.

Both gymnasts easily surpassed the required pass mark ensuring their progression to the final compulsory grade which they will take in 2019, marking the final hurdle to gaining entry to the 2019 British championships.

Additionally, we are delighted to say that Grace placed 10^th and Beatrice 6^th all around which were exceptional results in a very competitive field of over 40 gymnasts.

Notts Gymnastics Academy would like to commend both gymnasts on such fantastic performances, and congratulate elite coaches Jo Miller and Laura Wilson for their hard work and dedication to assist the girls in achieving this result.

Notts Gymnastics Academy are sad to announce that Glenys Derry, founder and Head Coach of the original Notts and friend to many, passed away on Sunday 15th April, age 76.

Glenys or Mrs Derry, as she was affectionately known by her gymnasts, made an enormous contribution to gymnastics both nationally and regionally.  She founded Nottingham Trent Gymnastics Club in 1974 which later became Rushcliffe Gymnastics Club.  For many years the club trained at two sites, Trent Polytechnic Campus in Clifton and in the Sports Hall at Rushcliffe Leisure Centre and like so many clubs of that era, had to erect and dismantle the apparatus each and every session. 

In the 1990’s after many years of planning she led the development of a purpose built facility at Rushcliffe.  Glenys, together with others, worked in partnership with Rushcliffe Borough Council and British Gymnastics to create the National Sports Acrobatics and East Midlands Gymnastics Centre.  Initially the facility included the sports hall and the smaller pitted gym before a further large extension resulted in the hugely impressive Notts Gymnastics Academy that exists today.  Unfortunately, at the very point when everything came together for her, Glenys became ill. Her illness and other factors beyond her control, were to significantly impact on her life and she was never to reap the rewards of her vision and was never to work fully at the very place that had been the culmination of a lifetime's ambition.

The success of the Academy today owes much to her dedication, determination and drive. Glenys was always delighted with the success of Notts Gymnastics Academy and took great pleasure in the work of previous head Coach, Claire Barbieri (Starkey), and present incumbent, Adam Folwell and his team and the fantastic achievements of past and current gymnasts which saw her dream become a reality.

In a career that spanned over 40 years Glenys excelled as a High Performance Coach producing numerous international gymnasts who represented Great Britain at World Championships, Senior and Junior European Championships and World Student Games.  Her enormous contribution to performance coaching was recognized by British Gymnastics who awarded her the title of Master Coach in 1996 and by the wider sporting community when she received the prestigious United Kingdom British Institute of Sports Coaches (BISC) ‘Coach of the Year Award’ in 1989.

Glenys was hugely passionate about coach education, mentoring and supporting many of the country’s current elite Coaches.  After her enforced retirement from coaching she focussed her efforts in this area and worked tirelessly to support the development of coach education nationally through her work on the Women’s Technical Committee and in the East Midlands Region. 

Glenys made a huge contribution to the development of gymnastics within the East Midlands.  She was Regional Coach for many years and provided invaluable support to many clubs and Coaches.  She was also a longstanding member of both the East Midlands WTC and JTC and contributed massively to advancement and development of gymnastics in the Region.

While she will be remembered for her many significant achievements those who knew her well will remember her for her dry humour, her sense of fun and for always having the courage to stand up for what she believed in. 

We, at Notts, owe a huge debt of gratitude to Glenys for all the hard work she put in on our behalf, we respect the tremendous affection she had for Rushcliffe and how proud she was to know that her Legacy will continue.

Our deepest sympathies go her daughters, Karen and Tanya, her beloved grandsons Sam and Joe and to ‘her girls’ who all thought the world of Mrs D. 

Funeral arranagements and information on where to send cards and flowers are now available on the British Gymnastics website here: Glenys Derry.

The 25^th March saw 23 Notts gymnasts from across the GFA competitive and Women’s Artistic disciplines descend on New College Leicester to take on their grade 6 and 5 competitions.

For many of the girls, it was their first taste of regional competition and they all presented themselves well in large fields of competitors. Our gymnasts were required to perform across vault, bars, beam, and floor as well as producing a range and conditioning routine to demonstrate their strength, control and flexibility.

Each routine was marked from a maximum possible score of 14, and several of our gymnasts delivered routines which received less than one mark in deductions, which is a great achievement!

Well done to Amelie, Kieley and Faith who achieved scores of 13.0 or over on vault and Millie, Amelie, Sophie and Tess who achieved this on bars at grade 6.

Congratulations also to Stephanie and Ava who scored 13.00 or higher on vault and Erin who achieved this mark on floor at grade 5.

Following a marathon day of competition over two rounds, the final scores gave the Notts contingent plenty to celebrate! In the Grade 6 competition Millie Browne placed 2^nd overall in a huge field of 65 gymnasts! Whilst in Grade 5, Erin Prentice earned Team Notts its second silver medal of the day as she also placed 2^nd out of 59 competitors.

All of our gymnasts passed their grade with many achieving commended passes or distinctions and they should all be very proud of their performances. Well done ladies!

The full results for all of the Notts competitors can be seen below:

Grade 6

Millie Browne – Silver, Distinction

Amelie Smith – Distinction

Ruby Thatcher – Distinction

Sophie Redgate – Distinction

Lilo Sharpe – Distinction

Kieley Brown – Distinction

Yasmin Kapila – Distinction

Isla Skedge – commended

Cherry May Briggs-Price – commended

Faith Wright - Commended

Jessica Stevens – Commended

Matilda Rayner – Commended

Florence Townsed – Commended

Tess Billingham - Commended

Megan Crampton - Commended

Malena Dafhnis-Luengo - Pass

Katie-May Hyland - Pass

Grade 5

Erin Prentice – Silver, Distinction

Stephanie Booth – Commended

Layla Lehane – Commended

Harriet Jackson – Commended

Ava Morgan-McQuade – Commended

Ella Dean – Commended

Sunday 18^th March saw a host of Notts women’s artistic competitors take part in the East Midlands Grades championships.

In the morning session, gymnasts deserved an award just for making it to the venue having battled through snow and ice, but our intrepid gymnasts weren’t put off by the cold and kicked of the competition taking part in the National 4 and National 2 categories.

All of the Notts National 4 competitors passed their grade, with 5 of our gymnasts achieving a “commended” pass. A special mention must go to Bella Saunders-Lucas who also won the silver medal in this category having put in strong performances across the board, achieving the 2^nd highest score on vault, the 3^rd highest mark on bars and the best mark of the competition on beam.

In the National 2 competition, Notts was represented by 6 gymnasts, all of whom passed the grade. Poppy Robinson and Katie Watson also had top 5 finishes in the open age and in-age competitions respectively, and Katie also achieved a distinction by scoring over 60.00 marks across the 5 required apparatus, which is a fantastic achievement!

The afternoon’s competition saw Notts gymnasts competing in National 3, National prep 5, compulsory 5 and a warm up competition for compulsory 2.

Two gymnasts represented Notts in the compulsory 2 warm up – Bea Hill and Grace Davies. Both girls competed well and made the most of their opportunity to practice their routines ahead of their national competition which will take place in May.

In the compulsory 5 competition Xyla Parris and Freya Lacey took part in their first regional competition and both achieved passes, a fantastic achievement for their first competition at a challenging grade.

National 3 had a lone competitor representing Notts, Niamh Lehane, but she didn’t let this put her off and she earned a commended pass achieving the 2^nd highest mark of the competition in Range and conditioning along the way, and placing 9^th overall in the event.

The final competition for the Notts gymnasts was National Prep 5, a new grade introduced to the region this year. Our 3 gymnasts all surpassed the pass mark by over 10 points, claiming some fantastic marks along the way! Sofia Granton-Crowe and Katie Donaghey both scored 12.667 on beam to equal each other with the highest beam mark of the day, whilst Lily Reyes proved that consistency across the board can be the key to success with her marks earning her the overall National Prep 5 regional title!

We are very proud of all of our gymnasts achievements from what was a very long day of competition and would also like to congratulate their coaches for their hard work to prepare the gymnasts so well. Congratulations from all at #TeamNotts.

Please see the full list of passes below.

National 4

Bella Saunders-Lucas – Commended, silver Medal

Adele Brown - Commended

Lexi Siddons - commended

Anna Bianchi – Commended

Lori Prentice - Commended

Violet Billingham – Pass

National 3

Niamh Lehane - Commended

National 2

Katie Watson - Distinction

Poppy Robinson – Commended

Erin Scott - Pass

Amy Harper - Pass

Lara Hill – Pass

Alice Oldershaw - Pass

Compulsory 5

Xyla Parris – Pass

Freya Lacey - Pass

National Prep 5

Lily Reyes – Pass, Gold Medal

Katie Donaghey – Pass

Sofia Granton Crowe - Pass