On Sunday 29th May our girls took part in the Inter County Women’s Artistic Competition in Horsham.

Our girls were spilt into teams representing Surrey in the level 3, 4 and 5 categories, and consisted of Amber Stevens, Rachel Cordell, Paige Hewitt, Sophie Miller, Natasha Brewer, Anna Gibson, Chloe Gibson, Lorien Stapleton, Danielle Shaw and Emily Kennedy. 

Our level 5 girls performed extremely well and saw some of our youngest gymnasts competing for the first time, enabling them to gain some valuable competition experience.  The level 5 team included Lorien and Emily, whose contribution secured the first Team Gold medal for Woking and Surrey!  In the Individuals, Lorien’s routines shone through resulting in Silver on Bars, Bronze on Floor and Bronze in the All-Around competition.

The Level 4 team included Chloe, Anna and Danielle. All girls were solid and performed very well in their category, resulting in another Team Gold and Bronze medal for Woking and Surrey!  Well done girls!!

Our level 3 gymnasts included Amber, Sophie, Rachel, Paige and Natasha.  The girls had a storming competition and also came home with Team Gold and Bronze medals!! In the Individuals they were able to show off some of their new skills for the first time in competition and rose to the challenge.  Amber Stevens performed a fantastic Bars routine to gain the Silver medal, and collected a Bronze for both her stunning Beam routine and beautiful Floor, placing her 4th in the All-Around.  Rachel Cordell had a few new tricks up her sleeve showing high difficulty routines, winning the beam with a whopping 13.8, in addition to Silver on the Vault and Floor, giving her the All-Around Gold medal!  Sophie Miller also had a fantastic day with a lovely beam routine showing high difficulty, resulting in an impressive 13.1 score to give her the Silver medal position and Bronze in the All-Around.

Paige Hewitt collected the Gold medal for her amazing and very brave Vault, having nearly taken her head off in the warm-up and giving everyone a fright!  She also collected 3rd for her bars routine.  Well done to you all!!

A very successful competition in terms of both results and experience! 

On Saturday 18TH June the Pegasus Open took place in Maidstone Kent.

The first round of the day was the Boy’s Individual.  Woking had Jamie Lewis, Jonty Mitchell, Leon McHugh and Lorenzo Carrozzo competing.  All boys performed very well, competing against gymnasts up to 2 years older than them.  Jamie Lewis finished a very impressive 2nd place in the All-Around (71.55) and collected a Gold medal on Vault and Parallel bars and Silver on Floor and Bronze on Pommels.  Jonty finished 13th (65.40), Leon finished 32nd (55.35)and Lorenzo 33rd (55.2).

The next round of the day saw Tobias Brewer and Miki Chu compete in the Intermediate age category.  Both gymnasts trained well for this competition and their hard work paid off.  Tobias finished 4th All-Around scoring 69.95 and collected a Bronze medal on Floor.  Miki finished 5th All-Around scoring 69.80 and collected a Silver medal on Pommels, a Gold medal on Parallel bars and a Bronze medal on High Bar.

The final round of the day was the Youth age category.  Harry Carter, Bradley McBride and Tom Defina competed for Woking.  Harry finished 3rd All-Around scoring 75.05 and picked up a Gold medal on Floor, a Silver medal on Rings and High bar and a Bronze medal on Parallel bars.  Bradley finished 5th All-Around scoring 70.05 in his first full competition in almost 3 years!  Tom only competed on 2 apparatus because of injury but managed to collect a Silver medal on Pommels.

On the weekend of 14/15 May, Woking’s young gymnasts once again competed in a National Final.

This time around, they were competing in a team event for the South East Region.

We had 3 Teams comprising of all Woking gymnasts in Performance Grades Levels 1,2 and 3.

The Level 1 Team did a lot better than last week, the team winning the Silver medal with 192.25. Adam Siddeeq in 4th (65.15), & Joshua Roche in 6th position (64.45). The other members of the Team were Jasper Smith-Gordon, 15th (59.80) and Joseph Frankland, 19th (59.15).

The Level 2 Team (Lucas Nunez (56.80), James Miller (55.10) & William Griggs (50.55)), in their first competition of this size, competed well to finish 5th with 162.45.

The Level 3 Team also competed well to claim the Bronze medal (189.70), with Jonty Mitchell (65.15) placing 5th individually , & Jamie Lewis (67.85) once again claiming the Gold. Leon McHugh placed 13th (55.90) and Lorenzo Carrozzo finished 16th (54.45).

Congratulations to all the boys!

In  round 1 the Under 9s got to compete in their first National final competition.  Woking had Adam Sideeqq, Joseph Frankland, Joshua Roche and Jasper Smith-Gordon representing them.  All the boys did very well with only slight errors creeping in.  Adam finished 10th (62.6) Joseph 15th (61.1) Joshua 17th (60.6) and Jasper 22nd (59.75).

In round 2 the Under 11s and Under 13s took to the stage.  Woking had Jamie Lewis, Jonty Mitchell and Tobias Brewer competing.

Jamie and Jonty competed in a very strong Under 11 age category and both performed with a great style and maturity.  Jamie Lewis executed 7 routines with almost perfect form and technique scoring 3 ‘Perfect 10s’ finishing in 1st place and scoring an incredible 68.0.  Jonty was very close to a couple of perfect scores himself and finished 5th scoring 64.1.

Tobias competed in the Under 13 age category and finished 7th scoring 58.4.

A very special well-done to Jamie Lewis who is Woking Gymnastic Club’s first All-Around National Champion for over 15 years.

On Sunday May 8th the Regional Voluntary Team Finals also took place in Leicester with Woking’s Harry Carter, Josh Sharpling and Bradley McBride representing the South East Team.  In a great competition that was tightly contested from start to finish the South East Team performed brilliantly to clinch the title scoring an impressive 239.25.

A fantastic weekend for all the boys and coaches from Woking – Well done!

On 13th March, 11 boys from Woking Gymnastics Club travelled to Crawley to take part in the South East Regional Setwork Championships. For 7 of these boys it was their first competition, and success meant qualifying for the National Finals to be held in Birmingham in May.

In the youngest age group, Under 9’s, Joshua Roche really pulled some great routines out the bag to claim Gold with 62.05. Silver went to Jasper Smith-Gordon (59.4), Bronze to Adam Siddeeq (59.2), with Joseph Frankland (56.4) in 4th position. The Under 10 age group saw Lucas Nunez win Gold with 54.8, James Miller (52.05) the Silver and William Griggs (45.5), Bronze. In the Under 11’s, Jamie Lewis, who is a member of GB National Squad, performed impeccably for Gold, scoring 64.65. Jonty Mitchell (60.4) claimed Silver, Leon McHugh (51.05), Bronze and Lorenzo Carrozzo (44.4) in 4th place.

WGC Boys Squad coaches are very proud of the way these young gymnasts performed, with all 11 of the boys qualifying for National Finals.

Woking Gymnastics Club works closely with local schools and this year the club again hosted the annual Inter School competition.

The competition was aimed at children aged 10-12 (yrs7 & 8). Over 65 children competed from the following schools; Winston Churchill, Woking High, Bishop David Brown, Fullbrook and Collingwood and Kings International.  Each gymnast competed individually on vault, floor and body management.

Many of the gymnasts participating in this event had never been in a purpose built facility, so the club laid on fun gymnastics based activities and displays by our Competition Squads to show all aspects of gymnastics. 

Gymnastics is often over looked in schools and the coaches at Woking Gymnastics club hope that their close work within the school community will change this. Woking Gymnastics Club offers coaching advice, lesson planning, lunch time & after school coaching for schools by qualified coaches.

On Friday 4th and Saturday 5th March the London Open took place at Goorsbrook Leisure Centre in Dagenham.

Friday’s competition was the Loveday Trophy and Tom Defina was competing for Woking.  Unfortunately Bradley McBride broke his finger in the week leading up to the competition and was unable to compete.  Tom scored 11.1 on Pommels; 12.7 on Rings and 10.35 on High bar.

On Saturday morning Tobias Brewer and Miki Chu competed in the Clayton Bolt Shield.  Miki was competing for the first time in over a year and finished a very creditable 22nd scoring 65.90.  Tobias Brewer finished 25th scoring 64.75.

The final round of Saturday was the Westminster Shield.  Josh Sharpling competed well scoring 12.6 on Floor; 13.35 on Pommels; 14.0 on Vault and 12.6 on Parallel bars.

On Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th February the English Championship took place at Fenton Manor in Stoke.

On Saturday Tobias Brewer competed in the Junior age category.  Tobias performed well, finishing 18th scoring 65.85.

On Sunday the Seniors took to the stage.  Woking is currently suffering from several injuries to key gymnasts.  Josh Sharpling, Tom Defina and Bradley McBride competed on some of the apparatus.  All the boys did well but unfortunately made a few silly errors.

Josh scored 12.3 on Floor; 6.8 on Pommels; 14.5 on Vault and 12.7 on Parallel bars.  Tom scored 11.0 on Pommels; 11.6 on Rings and 10.5 on High bar.  Bradley scored 11.2 on Pommels; 12.4 on Rings; 12.0 on Parallel bars and 12.2 on High bar.

On Sunday 20th February Josh Sharpling competed in the 2011 BUCS Championship at Rushmoor Gymnastics Club.

There were 17 Elite men competing for a place in the British University and College Team for the World Student Games in China later in the year.

Josh competed well scoring 12.4 on Floor, 13.5 on Pommels (highest score of the day), 14.4 on Vault and 12.2 on Parallel bars.

There are another 3/4 trial competitions throughout the next few months.  All the coaches on the men’s team at Woking wish Josh all the best for future trials and in his studies at Kings College.

2010 has been the most successful year in British Gymnastics history.  Beginning with the European Championships, spanning through the Youth Olympics and Commonwealth Games and ending recently at the World Championships, the British boys are now firmly established as world powers in gymnastics. 

The British Championships was the final competition of this memorable year.  Woking Gymnastics Club took 4 gymnasts to try and establish themselves with the very best gymnasts in the world. 

On Friday 5th November, Tobias Brewer competed in the Under 12 age category.  Tobias performed well scoring 68.80, finishing in 12th place. 

On Saturday 6th November Harry Carter competed in the Under 16 age group.  Harry had a brilliant competition, having been injured for a lot of the year; Harry missed out on a medal in the All-Around by the narrowest of margins.  He scored 75.950 and finished 4th , less than 0.20 from a bronze medal. He collected a Silver medal on Rings and Vault and a Bronze medal on Parallel Bars.  Harry also qualified as the youngest Vault Masters Finalist on the Sunday. 

Next were Grant Gardiner and Josh Sharpling in the Senior age category.  Grant having recently been crowned Northern European All-Around Champion only last week, went into the competition understandably very fatigued.  However, he still managed to perform well with only a couple of errors finishing 8th scoring 78.250.  Grant qualified for the Masters Final on Parallel Bars and High Bar and was 1st reserve for Floor.   
Josh Sharpling competed on Pommel Horse scoring 12.80 and qualifying for the Pommel Masters final.  It was a great result for Josh after giving up gymnastics to go to University and only recently returning to the sport. 

The Masters Finals were the top 8 gymnasts in Great Britain on each apparatus.  For Woking Gymnastics Club to have all three eligible gymnasts qualify was a great achievement for the club.   

The boys didn’t disappoint with Josh finishing 5th on Pommels, Grant finishing 8th on Parallel Bars and 6th on High Bar and finally, young Harry Carter finishing 6th on Vault. 

Head Coach Simon Elliott said “We are all very proud of the boys.  To get in the mix with the best gymnasts in Great Britain shows we have some world class performers in the making.  Everyone is looking forward to 2011”.