Honiton gym

Medals galore for Honiton’s young gymnasts

Wednesday, August 8, 2012
11:49 AM

Honiton gym club has finished the season with a hat-trick of gold medals, after taking top titles at the south west acrobatic gymnastics championships at the weekend.

Honiton gymnasts

Carrying back gold medals to Honiton were: Grade 2 trio Emily Lee, Michaela Jones, and Lauren Davey; 11-16 girl’s pair Kaisha Dessalines-Wright and Alice Hewstone; 11-16 men’s pair Buster Tutcher and Ashley Wallis.

The competition, which took place at both Taunton and Sherborne in Dorset, saw more than 600 gymnasts competing for honours, and alongside Honiton’s south west champions the club brought back two silver and four bronze medals.

“The championships were extremely successful for the club,” said squad acro coach Melissa Ilsley. “It was satisfying to not only see Dessalines-Wright and Hewstone and Tutcher and Wallis retain their south west titles, but also see our young trio bring home a gold and our other partnerships bring home another six medals. The kids have been training hard all year, and it’s great to see the rewards of their efforts. Even those who didn’t make the podium put in strong performances and were a credit to Honiton Gymnastics Club.”

The South West Championships were also the first inter-club competition that some of the younger gymnasts had competed in, and the boys pair of Gary Daru (7) and Jude Fairburn (8) showed excellent promise for the future, taking the silver medal in Prep A men’s pair, while Saffy Herbert, Faith Symons and Emily Bristol took silver in the grade 1 girls’ trio.

Bronze medals were brought back by: 11-16 mixed pair Josh Jackson and Charlotte Beviss; Grade 2 men’s pair Matt Beviss and Morgan Johnson; Grade 3 mixed pair Sean Kingston and Megan Cross; Prep B girls’ pair Corinna Challis & Sophie Patmore.

“It’s the end of the season for most of our gymnasts,” added Melissa, “which is quite an exciting time for many of them, as they begin their preparation for new and more difficult moves next year. For more information on acrobatic gymnastics in Honiton, visit www.honitongymclub.org