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| Captured "mid-slide" |
Welcome to the Jungle...
Regional championships. If you are an NDP gymnast, this is where life starts to become really really real. Conditions are simple. 1st place = national finals. That's it.
We had an early start (nothing new there). Up at 5am, the coach left at 6:15am. You would have thought we got used to that by now. No chance. Hate it. Its a disgusting and offensive time to be waking up on Sunday. Rant over. We travelled with 19 gymnasts to perform their routines at the competition. We had partnerships competing throughout the NDP levels from Grade 2 up to Grade 5. This was the first time we had MxP's in every category!
The morning saw our grade 2's and 3's competing, which was the bulk of the group. Our 3's did well, with G3 WP Tabitha & Saya pulling off their best routine to date, with this being their first competition, resulting in a score of 26.37 which was great to see. Our 2nd WP of Clara & Annabel pulled a score of 26.70 which would have been 27.00 without a technical deduction, which is definitely their PB! Our grade 3 MP of Rex & Ivan would have resulted in a better score if they hadn't mixed up their dance! Nevertheless they did well for their first experience. Our G3 MxP of Sam&Romilly secured the SILVER medal with a beautiful routine. Well done them! Hat's off to our wonderful Grade2 MxP of Tom&Darya who won the GOLD medal, and qualified through to National Finals with a score of 27.37! Amazing!
The afternoon saw our G4 and G5 MxP competing. The G4 MxP group was one of the most fiercely contested categories in the ENTIRE country (we know this from the other domestic competitions we've been to!). Mika&Natalie performed a great routine, with some upgrades, but narrowly missed out on the top spot with a score of 27.616 by only 0.007. Yes, that's right, 0.007 marks. What a shame! Not too bad, considering they've won everything else! Our G5 MxP of Yunus & Tara still showed their strength across both routines, and came out on top to claim the GOLD medal qualifying through to National Finals too!
2 pairs through... 1 more than last year! We keep getting better :)
