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| Medal Haul from the 1st day |
"A man who views the world the same at 50 as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life." - Muhammed Ali (RIP)
Being great is a state of mind. You have to think it, believe it, live it, and remember it. We are great. Our gymnasts, our coaches, our judges, and our parents. Yet we still are humble. The Saltney Classic was a great competition - the second time we have attended this comp, which is the last NDP comp of our season. We wanted to go out with a bang!
We took 7 partnerships up, including 4 very new and young gymnasts to the world of Acrobatics! The competition was split over 2 days, seeing our G1, G2 and FIG partnerships competing on the Saturday. We arrived in Chester around 5pm Friday and somehow managed to rustle up a restaurant booking for 23 people within an hour. "Skills", I hear you say. Thank you. After a great meal where Jamie shared much more than he'd hoped to (sorry Kaye), we headed to bed and woke up bright and early for our first day.
Saturday Morning saw the FIG balance routines. Our WG of Clara, Leah and Hannah performed well with nicely executed moves, but had a large CJP (penalty) deduction on attire (silly rules). Due to their performance they still managed to edge out in 1st place after their first routine. Our WP of Layla and Mercedes gained the highest execution score of ALL FIG balance routines in their first routine. They were slightly behind in artistry, and were placed in 2nd after this.
We then saw our new G1 partnerships of Jackson&Jake and Jacob&Lilly - the highlight of the weekend for practically everyone. We were told the judges were literally (and I do mean literally) bouncing up and down in their seats with excitement to see our tiny but talented gymnasts perform on the floor. After a momentary shouldn't-be-amusing-but-was-slightly cute moment where Jake and Jacob clashed heads on the floor in warm up, everything ran swimmingly. Both performed very well and received higher scores than a lot of the rest of the competition, boding well for future comps! Our G2 MxP of Nathan & Mati were next up. They utterly stunned the crowd and the judges performing a wonderful routine, gaining a whopping top score of 27.79, taking the Gold medal, which turned out to be the highest score of the weekend!! (We need a trophy cabinet... we keep getting these now).
The afternoon concluded with the FIG dynamic routines. The WG performed a stunning routine, which was crowned the highest artistry of all dynamic routines that weekend. They eventually won the Silver medal! Our WP performed their best dynamic routine to date, also taking home the Silver medal!
After a great 1st day, we looked forward to our two G3 and G4 partnerships gracing the floor the day after. Both partnerships were due on in the morning. Saya and Tabitha were up first, and produced a clean routine, with a few last minute changes before they competed, where they were crowned with the Bronze medal... OUT OF 24 PARTNERSHIPS!! Great achievement. Lastly, we had Sam&Romilly who regularly make judges cry... they performed their first G4 routine gracefully... until the end... where a handstand-on-knee had a mind of its own. After much determination and unfathomable grit, they did not drop the move. They finally finished with the Gold medal!!!
WHAT A WEEKEND!!! MEDALS FOR ALL GYMNASTS!! AGAIN!!
