Newcomers win Year 3/4 Gymnastics Competition

Teams of year 3 & 4 gymnasts from thirteen South Cambs primary schools took part in the South Cambs School Sports Partnerships Key Steps Gymnastics Competition on Wednesday 8th February at Comberton Village College.

The mood was quietly focused whilst the children demonstrated their skills on the vault and floor in front of the judges and on looking spectators. At stake was the chance to represent South Cambs SSP at the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough School Games Spring Festival, with the top two schools qualifying to take on the best schools from across the County.

After a welcome and warm up led by the partnerships young coaches and sports leaders the competition started.

The teams of six children from Great Abington, Castle Camps, Milton, Thriplow, Cottenham, Coton, Linton Heights, Bassingbourn, Harston & Newton, Haslingfield, Meridian & Jeavons Wood schools all had to perform a vault and then either a floor or body management routine with each performance judged and given a score out of 10. Each child’s individual score in both disciplines was then combined to give an overall team score out of a maximum of 120.

The competition was fiercely contested and after all of the scores were added up less than 5 points separated the top 10 teams! With strong performances throughout the whole team it was newcomers to the competition Castle Camps Primary School who out performed all of the others to claim the title of South Cambs champions! Finishing as runners up and improving on their third place finish last year were Meridian Primary School. Both teams now go forward to represent South Cambs SSP at the County School Games Spring Finals on Thursday 23rd March at Huntingdon gymnastics Club. Last year’s qualifiers Coton and Linton Heights finished closely behind in 3rd and 4th place respectively.

The top 3 scoring individuals in the competition were also awarded with medals with again some really close scores.

1st        Angela (Meridian) 19.6
2nd       Lucia (Meridian) 19.5
= 3rd     Exri (Harston & Newton) & Ellen (Milton) 19.4

Qualified young judges from Melbourn, Cambourne, Swavesey, Comberton, Swavesey & Cottenham Village Colleges as well as coaches from the County Young Coach Academy did an expert job in scoring the performances of all of the competitors, keeping the competition running smoothly and encouraging and supporting the young gymnasts.

The ‘Spirit of the Games’ award that recognises the team that has best demonstrated the sporting values of respect, determination, teamwork, honesty, passion and self-belief was awarded to Great Abington Primary School. The sports leaders judged them as the winners for showing great determination and passion throughout the afternoon and performing with great enjoyment. A Spirit of the Games award was also presented to Jayden from Thriplow Primary for overcoming his nerves and showing great determination to perform his body management routine and contribute to his team’s performance, well done to him.

Claire McDonnell, South Cambs School Games Organiser said, “The young judges did an exceptional job today we couldn’t have run the competition without them, they were focused and efficient throughout. It was really pleasing to see the standard of gymnastics on display, I think it gets better every year and it was obvious the schools and children had all been practising hard. It was good to see some different schools taking part this year, giving more children the opportunity to represent their school.

We would like to congratulate all of the children and schools who competed and we wish Castle camps and Meridian Primary the best of luck at the county finals next month.”

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