TRA British Championships 2024
Sixteen talented gymnasts secured their places to compete at the 2024 FIG Age Group Finals on Saturday 5th October in Telford through their performances at this year’s qualification competition series. The gymnasts would compete at the newly structured event with the top 16 qualifying through to the 2024 British Championships held on Sunday 6th October.
FIG Age Group Finals
The weekend began with the Men’s aged 10 competition, Jacob Bond and Jacob Dickinson showed their skills with the latter securing a 12th place finish and Jacob Bond awarded the silver medal and qualifying through to the British Championships the next day.
In the Women’s aged 10 event, Amy Leigh Gibbons-Hennessy posted the highest score in her competition for both routines to be crowned National Age Group Champion, also securing her spot for the next day’s event.
The Women’s 11-12 event saw the most competitors in a category for NTGA, with Summer Hillery, Sofia Falkner, Alex Green and Isla-Belle Trimble all making the trip to Telford. All impressed the judges with their skills, placing 10th, 8th, 4th and 3rd respectively, and qualifying their places at the British Championships.
Olly Coleman and Henry Coetzer competed in the Men’s 11-12 event, with Olly finishing a strong 5th position and Henry posting the highest set routine score is his category and securing the bronze medal.
Millie Vassel performed her personal best score at the National Finals, managing to place 13th in the competitive Women’s 13-14 event.
In the Women’s 15-16 category, Savanna Wootton and Lexie Barnell placed 20th and 24th respectively after a couple of unfortunate errors.
Keir Davidson competed in the Senior Men’s event with his debut performance for NTGA after his recent move to the club. A strong routine placed him an impressive 8th in arguably the most challenging qualification event, including a 2024 Olympian.
Ellie Vassel and Lois Moseley finished the day with fantastic performances in the Women’s 17-21 competition, Ellie completing a personal best difficulty routine to secure the bronze medal, and Lois stunning the judges to be crowned National Age Group Champion.
We would also like to congratulate Isobel Scott for her qualification to the event, although she was unable to compete due to injury.
British Championships
Saturday’s impressive show was followed by this year’s British Championships on Sunday. For this competition age groups are combined into Youth (10-12), Junior (13-16) and Senior (17+), meaning even more challenge for the gymnasts!
The day began with the synchronised competitions, with Savanna Wootton and Lexie Barnell looking composed under pressure to finish 6th in the Junior Women’s event, and Olly Coleman and Henry Coetzer securing the first medals of the day with a bronze place finish in the Youth Men’s event.
In the Men’s Youth event Jacob Bond challenged his older competitors with impressive routines, finishing a respectable 12th position. Olly Coleman looked strong in both the semi-finals and finals, finishing a strong 6th place, and Henry Coetzer qualified through the semi-finals to post a personal best score in the finals and be awarded the silver medal.
Sofia Falkner, Alex Green, Isla-Belle Trimble and Amy Leigh Gibbons-Hennessy all competed in the Youth Women’s event. Sofia showed off her routine finishing 12th place, whilst Alex jumped through to her first British Championships final, finishing 7th place. Isla-Belle and Amy impressed the judges to both secure medals in the event with Isla-Belle decorated in bronze and Amy in silver.
Keir Davidson put on a show for the audience in his Senior Men’s semi-final finishing in 12th position and in the Senior Women’s event Ellie Vassel and Lois Moseley showed off their skills. Ellie finished the event in 12th place and Lois posted NTGA’s highest scoring routine of the weekend to finish in an amazing silver medal position, only beaten by Olympic Champion Bryony Page.
NTGA would like to pass on a huge congratulations to members for both their amazing performances and attitudes throughout the weekend, and thank the parents, family and friends who supported the NTGA team across both events. Also special thanks to the coaches who tirelessly supported the gymnasts throughout the weekend.