Woking had ten representatives competing as part of the South East Region at this year’s national finals. This, the last domestic competition of the year, is the biggest event in these young gymnasts’ calendar, and a chance to see how they rank against the rest of the country.

The weekend started with the Club level 1 competition, Jay Coote was the only Woking gymnast in the team. He made a few mistakes but performed well on Vault, Pommels and H-Bar to finish in 47th all around. The team just missed out on a medal, placing fourth. The next competitor to take to the floor was Woking’s Joel Ireland. Joel had a clean competition and scored 59.000, enough to take the 10th place spot in the Club level 5 category.

With Saturday came the start of the elite competitions. Santo Fuoco, Tom O’Connor and Alex Donchev made up the Elite level 4 team that placed 4th. Santo struggled with a few of the routines but found form on the vault where he picked up his highest score of the day, his total of 53.975 put him in 16th. Team mate Tom performed well, but falls on Pommel and P-Bars were costly, returning an all-around score of 57.450 (14th). Despite errors on P-Bars, Alex was delighted to stay on the pommel horse, and produced some very good vaulting to finish in 8th place (61.475).

Joshua Porter was in the Elite level 5 category. The difficulty of the routines meant only 10 gymnasts were able to compete at this level. Josh made mistakes on the first few apparatus but bounced back well, scoring the top scores on P-Bar and H-Bar. He finished the competition in 7th place. Josh’s performances helped the South East team to win the gold medal.

However it was younger brother Oliver Porter with the stand out performance of the day. This time last year he had a nightmare on pommels and scored a zero, resulting in him slipping way down in the rankings. Oliver has worked tirelessly over the last year and set out to abolish his demons, he went through routine after routine with style and precision. This fantastic display surpassed that of all his competitors as he won the competition with a total of 63.900. His impressive performance also helped the team to take home the gold, nearly nine marks ahead of their closest rivals.

The final competition of the weekend was the elite level 1 competition. This was a closely fought battle in a tough field. Despite errors on PPP and floor, Woking’s Harrison Lamble posted good scores on Vault and H-bar. He was thrilled to complete his pommel routine without falling and finished in 37th place AA. Ben Porter had a mixed day. Producing beautiful work on five of the seven apparatus, he unfortunately made errors on P-Bars and PPP and slipped down to 14th in the final standings. Jake Palmer was the top Woking gymnast, scoring a perfect 10 on pommels. The recent World Championships showed us that gymnastics is decided by the finest of margins, and at this level it is no different. Jake made one mistake in handstand on PPP and missed out on a medal by just 0.2, finishing in 5th place. The joint efforts of the gymnasts was enough to yield a bronze medal in the team competition.

There were further rewards for our gymnasts and coaches as the South East Region were presented with the Blakeborough trophy. This prestigious award recognises them as the top performing region across the elite grades competition.
​
Four of our gymnasts have also been invited to British Gymnastics’ Squad Selection Day. Joshua Porter, Alex Donchev, Oliver Porter and Jake Palmer will travel to Lilleshall to try and gain a spot in the National Squads for 2019. We wish them the best of luck.

The Guildford Spectrum hosted yet again the National Age Groups Finals on the first weekend of November for girls born in 2009, 2008 and 2007. Three age groups and plenty of talent met together after a mighty regional qualification, where only the top 4 girls in each region make the team for National Finals.
​
The South East team were in Round 2 on Saturday 3rd November led by Woking’s rising star Farah Rothwell. Vault is always good piece to start with and Farah did not disappoint producing massive Vault to score 12.750 points, followed by bars, where Farah went clean showing determination. A beautiful beam packed with difficulty and style and greatly appreciated by the judges with the 3rd highest score of the day – 12.600 and a classy floor to finish. Four for four clean routines to finish in 9th place in Great Britain in Voluntary Level 3 with a total of 48.100 points. To top up the fantastic day Farah had, she helped the team to finish 4th place in the team event in a very strong line up. Adding the Compulsory Level 3 National Finals earlier on in the year, Farah Rothwell finished in 10th place all-around combined score in Great Britain in her respective age group with a total of 108.150 points.
 
 Next up on Sunday was Annabella Higgins in Level 4 as part of the South East team. A thrilling start on bars followed by beautiful, classy and elegant work on beam and floor, where she earned – 11.950 for beam and 11.150 points for floor and a powerful Vault to end up the competition. Total of 46.650 points and 35th place All Around in Voluntary Level 4 National Finals in a mighty line up. After adding up her score from the National Compulsory 4 Finals Annabella progressed to a fantastic 24th place in the country with a total of 105.325 points.

The annual regional advanced competition took place on Sunday 30th September at Guildford spectrum. 140 gymnasts from across the South East came to compete on floor and vault, all aiming to become regional champion and achieve the qualifying score of 16.00 to move into the bronze level category.

In round one Woking had 11 gymnasts entered. In the Boys 2008 category we had 2 gymnasts competing, Jack Dadswell began with two very powerful vaults achieving a score of 6.95 and after some minor errors with his floor routine he placed a respectable 5th. Charles Dadswell performed well on vault and after some hesitations produced a stylish floor routine to put him slightly ahead of his brother and into 4th place.

In the Girls 2006 competition Esme Finch started the competition off with two handsprings on vault, on floor she did very well to complete the full routine and finish a credible 13th. Team mate Arabella Wilson performed two beautiful vaults to achieve a score of 7.35 and with minimal practice of her floor routine finished in 10th. Laura Kersley had a very strong competition, she displayed excellent vaults to achieve 7.50 which was the highest vault score of the group, with a very tidy floor routine to finish she picked up the bronze medal placing 3rd.

Our final group for round one were the Girls 2008, we had 6 gymnasts entered. Amani Ali had some problems on vault but quickly put these behind her to perform a strong routine on floor and finish in 13th. Brogan Barrott did very well complete her competition after a recent injury and place in 12th.  Tegan Fookes showed massive improvement on her floor routine to achieve a score of 8.25, and after performing a handspring vault for the first time at competition placed 10th. Matilda Swift displayed her new floor routine to place in 6th, slightly ahead was Elenor Pearson who made her regional debut and placed in 4th position. To complete the group Olivia Kraus’ practice paid off as she showed a very elegant floor routine to place top of the group in 1st and become regional champion. Olivia also achieved a score of 16.10 to qualify for bronze level.
 
Woking had just 2 gymnasts competing in round two, both competing in the regional advanced competition for the first time. Poppy Davies and Eleanor Whitacker competed in the Girls 2007 category. With a tough time in warm up Poppy manged to compete two handspring vaults, she then performed her brand new floor routine with confidence to place in 11th. Elenor showed power on vault and after lots of nerves got through her floor routine to place in 13th. Both girls should be very proud of their performances and take the experience gained onto future competitions.
 
Although it may not have been our strongest competition, we will continue to use the experience and build on it for next time, all of the gymnasts who participated in the competition should be proud of themselves and their performances. Also a big thank you to the coaches and judges who assisted the gymnasts at the competition. 

On Sunday 23rd September Woking sent 14 boys to Pegasus GC to try and gain a place representing the South East at this year’s Grades Finals to be held in Birmingham.
In the morning session Woking’s younger boys took to the floor, in the U8 Pre Elite Level 1 age group James Fricker competed and scored 34.1 placing him 4th, as he is a pre level 1 James could not qualify for the finals but can now see what he needs to work on for next year.

The Elite Level 1 competition qualifies for 2 team, the top 6 will make the Elite team, and the next 6 will make the Cub team. 6 Woking boys competed in the biggest age group of the day, Jake Palmer finished 1st with 2 perfect 10s on the pommel and vault and scored 66.95 all round. In 2nd place with only a 0.25 difference in score was Ben Porter his score of 66.7 also included a perfect 10 on vault. Harrison Lamble finished 6th with a score of 60.7. Jake Ben and Harrison have all made the Elite level 1 team. Jay Coote finished 11th with 57.6 and secured his place in the Club team. Hayden Blackmun and Max Veo-Creek 13th and 15th with their scores of 55.2 and 52.35 but unfortunately these were not high enough to make either team.
 
In the afternoon Woking had boys represented in 4 different categories. Oliver Porter and Jamaal Kashim were in Elite level 3 and both took a place in the team, Oliver finished 1st with 62.95 and Jamaal 3rd with 52.75. Oliver and Jamaal will go to finals and try to help their team win gold for the 3rd year running.

The Elite Level 4 is a Woking only Team with Alex Donchev taking 1st place with 55.665, Tom O’Connor was 2nd with 53.283 and Santo Fuoco scored 49.7 and finished 3rd, all 3 boys will be working hard to increase their scores for the finals especially on Pommel Horse.

Joshua Porter gained his place in the Elite Level 5 Team for the finals, He came 1st with a score of 55.325. Josh has been working hard and will hope to carry this on towards the finals.
Joel Ireland came 1st in the Club Level 5 category and took his spot in the finals with a score of 59. Joel showed significant improvements in this competition and will be hoping to show even more improvements by the finals.

With a Total of 11 boys making the Grades Finals, Woking was the most successful club in the Region. This contributed to Woking GC winning the Presidents Trophy! The scores from this competition and the Regional Voluntaries from earlier in the year combined make up the final score for the Presidents Trophy, Woking finished with a score of 849.63 nearly 200 points above 2nd place.
​
Well done to all the boys and coaches and good luck for the finals in November.

Guildford Spectrum hosted another South East Voluntary Championship on the weekend of 8 – 9th September, where more than 200 girls from across the region gets together to battle for the regional titles as well as to define who will be honoured to represent the SE Region in the upcoming Age Groups National Finals later on in November.

First up on Saturday was our very own rising star Maggie Rees. Difficult and classy work throughout the competition with a couple of unfortunate mistakes and a total of 37.050 points.

Next up on Sunday in the first round were our amazing Level 3 team – Farah Rothwell, Tomi Dada, Stacey Mapara, Lily Clarke-Moss and Charlotte Barnard. Dashing Floor routines from all the girls to start with followed by powerful Vaults, where Farah posted the highest score of the day – 13.500 points, Bars where girls showed some updates and last but not least Beam, where girls held their nerves with Tomi, Charlotte and Lily producing clean routines and finishing in top 6.
 
It’s safe to say that at the end  Woking GC owned the podium in Level 3 with Farah winning the All Around title with a total of 47.050 as well as taking home three more apparatus title – Vault, Bars and Floor and Tomi taking Silver on Beam.

Elsewhere Tomi and Stacey shared the very creditable 7th place in the All Around competition in a very strong line up with total of 42.625 points with Lily closely behind them with a score of 42.350 points and very well deserved 3rd place in the Team Event.

Last but definitely not least were Sienna Neep and Annabella Higgins in Round 7...Yes it was a rather packed competition! Clean, confident and difficult work from Sienna across all four pieces, especially Beam where she posted the highest Start Score of 3.1 points and ended up 5th despite a minor mistake, and 12th place Over All with a score of 41.750 points.

When it comes to combining difficulty and elegance look no further than our very own star -Annabella Higgins.  In a mighty line up in Level 4 she performed with confidence and poise to come 4th Over All narrowly missing podium place but qualifying for National Finals and winning the Beam title with an impressive score of 12.550 points, which was the highest score on Beam across all levels.
​
To top up a fantastic competition year Woking Gymnastics Club was awarded with The President’s award for Women’s Artistic Excellence from South East Region for best club across Level 4 and Level 3.

This historic and prestigious event served as a selection event for the upcoming World Championships and was attended by all the top clubs from across the country and international gymnasts from Finland and Australia. Woking had a strong entry of twenty four gymnasts across six age groups.

The competition started well with our Elite Level 1 gymnasts. Our team of Jake Palmer, Ben Porter, Hayden Blackmun, Harrison Lamble, Jay Coote and Max Veo-Creek, performed well in a very strong field. Max (45.200, 35th), Jay (47.000, 32nd), Harrison (48.400, 27th) and Hayden (48.700, 23rd) have improved greatly in the last twelve months and it will be a closely fought competition in the upcoming grades qualifier. There was a one-two for Woking; Jake Palmer took the AA title with 55.700, just ahead of team mate Ben Porter (55.050). Ben looked classy and stylish as he took home the gold medal on Floor, Vault and P-Bars, along with a bronze medal on H-Bar. While Jake scored a perfect 10 on Pommels and won a bronze medal on the rings.

There was more success in the Elite Level 3 Competition, where Oliver Porter produced some stunning performances, to win gold on the Rings and P-Bars, he added a bronze on H-Bar and despite falling on Pommels, scored well enough to take home the AA title with a score of 53.601. Jamaal Kashim held his own to finish 9th (44.443), with a little more confidence he will surely prove to be an important team player in the national finals.

The Elite Level 4 competition was full of ups and downs. Santo Fuoco didn’t have his best day but did score well enough to take home a silver medal on Floor, his all-around total of 38.268 put him in 7th. Thomas O’Connor won Gold on H-bar and Bronze on P-bars, he counted a few falls but still finished 5th AA (44.943).

The main event of the weekend was the Westminster Cup. In a field of Olympic, World and European medallists, Woking has two competitors. Tim McCarthy suffered a small injury in podium training and was only able to compete on four apparatus. His top score was 12.750 on P-Bars. Jamie Lewis was competing in his first senior competition since winning five medals at the Junior European Championships. He competed on the pommel horse, putting out an upgraded routine but did not get his dismount credited. He finished 6th with 13.250.

Sunday morning saw Christian Fuoco, Charlie Rose, Rudi Moriano, Laurence Butler, Josh Porter and Joel Ireland compete in the Max Whitlock Competition. Despite falling three times Josh was the highest placed Woking gymnast (64.600, 21st), Laurence was 26th (63.550) just ahead of Joel who went 6 for 6. Rudi scored 62.067 (32nd) with Christian in 34th (60.000). Charlie competed just five apparatus scoring 47.634.

The final competition was the Peter Moore Competition. Lorenzo Carrozzo and Jasper Smith-Gordon were competing on their 18th and 16th birthdays respectively. Lorenzo was disappointed to miss his Kovacs on H-Bar, but still managed to finish 5th AA (73.350), impressing the judges and picking up a bronze medal on Rings and a silver on Pommels. Jasper was 8th AA (72.400), the highlight of his competition was undoubtedly his new Vault which he stuck to score a world-class 14.750. Fraser Griffiths was 19th AA (69.700), with James Miller in 26th (66.300).
​
It was a great weekend for the Boys Squad, demonstrating our strength across the age ranges. Well done to all the Gymnasts and Coaches. 

The British junior men’s team of Pavel Karnejenko (Notts), Jamie Lewis (Woking), Adam Tobin (Falcons), Jake Jarman (Huntingdon) and Donell Osbourne (City of Birmingham) have taken silver at the 2018 Junior European Championships in Glasgow, narrowly missing out on gold to Russia. 

Jamie Lewis also produced a brilliant all-around performance to take silver, being knocked off top spot with the last routine of the day by Nicola Mozzato of Italy. 

With four gymnasts competing on each apparatus and the top three of those scores counting, the team started on floor with four clean routines. Jamie (13.733) and Pavel (13.500) both impressed, qualifying for the apparatus final in first and sixth respectively.

Moving on to pommel horse, Jamie was again in inspired form, showcasing all of his skill on that apparatus to score 13.833 to qualify in top spot.

Jamie scored 13.533 on rings to finish in fourth, making three apparatus finals in total.

Jamie Lewis said after: "I am really pleased with the results today. We’ve had our ups and downs but we did what we could and we have still come away silver medallists. We’ve been training together for many years and I couldn’t ask for better teammates. Personally I am now turning into a senior level gymnast so I need use this experience to get back into the gym and work hard on upgrading my skills. It will be tough but I am looking forward to the challenge."

Two days later in the apparatus finals, Jamie Lewis won three individual apparatus medals, becoming champion on floor, winning silver on pommel and bronze on rings. 

Having won team and all-around silver on Friday, Jamie returned to compete on pommel first, showcasing his ability as an accomplished pommel worker to score 13.733. That put him in first place, but he was pipped to the title with the last routine of the final by Italy’s Edoardo De Rosa with a score of 14.066.

It was straight over to floor next for Jamie where he completed a clean routine, sticking nearly all of his landings for a score of 13.833. That was enough to see him top the podium.

Jamie was again in action on the next piece having qualified for the rings final. Against tough competition, he took bronze with 13.700 to complete the set during a brilliant morning for himself and GB.

Speaking after, Jamie said: "My landings (on floor) were really nice, and I'm so happy to win gold. I had a nice clean routine on pommel. I was a little shaky but managed to get through it. Rings, I wasn't really expecting too much because the competition was so strong so I was delighted to win bronze. I've got to start pushing my elements up now, and i'll be going away from here working really hard to improve my skills ready for turning senior, because I know it won't be easy."

Well done to Jamie on an extremely successful European Championships and we wish him the best of luck as he transitions to seniors! Also, a big congratulations to Simon Elliott, the Junior Team GB coach and Jamie's personal coach here at Woking. A final congratulations to Craig Woodhams who was selected as a judge at this years event! It was great to see three members of Woking Gymnastics Club representing Great Britain! 

Our intermediate floor and vault competitive gymnasts took part in the South East regional competition held on Sunday 15th July at Guildford Spectrum. 14 gymnasts took part in the regional event and they all showed some fantastic routines.

In round one Josephine Clark, Gracie Beight, Jamie Simons and Amelie Power all showed very clean floor routines in the 2011-2010 age group. Amelie and Jamie both received joint 3rd position, Gracie wasn’t far behind in 5th and to finish the group Josephine finished in 7th. In the 2009 age group Tallulah Gurney showed lots of improvement on the vault to finish in 8th position. To finish the round Elwyn Dury competed in the 2007 age group, after a great routine on floor placed in 1st to become regional champion.
​
Round two saw Jacob Gurden pick up the gold medal in the 2004 age group becoming regional champion, slightly behind was Ben Gurden who placed 2nd just 0.1 behind. Holly Scanlon showed confidence throughout the competition to place 11th in the very large 2006 age category. After a small wobble on vault Ethan Laurent performed a fantastic floor routine to finish in 3rd place within the 2009-2010 age group. Finally our boys competing in the 2008-2009 age group had a brilliant competition, John Burthom placed 8th, Ben O’Connor 5th, Josh Lines 3rd and Darko Downer 2nd.
Well done to all gymnasts who took part in the event. 

On Sunday 14th July Woking sent a team of 5 boys to compete in the U14 British Teams. Rudi Moriano, Joel Ireland, Charlie Rose, Laurence Butler and Josh Porter.  The boys started their competition on Rings and hit 5 clean routines, they followed that up with a good round of Vaults. Unfortunately P bars was not so successful, Rudi and Joel hit clean routines but there were mistakes throughout the rest of the team, High bar followed in a similar pattern and with falls through the team the boys struggled to put a decent score together. Floor was a lot better with all the boys making their routines. Then it came to Pommel Horse some of the boys completed routines, but the team had to count a number of falls towards their score. The team finished 10th with a score of 250.1. 

On Sunday 2nd July 2018 Our Bronze, Silver and Gold gymnasts participated in the South East regional floor & vault competition held at the spectrum. Our gymnasts showed some beautiful routines and powerful vaults as they aimed to achieve the qualifying score to move to the next category of competition.

Round one began with Leila Ricketts competing in the bronze category. She performed well in a large group to finish in 9th position. In the silver level Riley Morris experienced her first competition since moving up from bronze and finished in a respectable 5th place, Tamara Venter also placed in 3rd slightly ahead of her team mate. To finish the round Toby Spencer competed in the bronze boy’s category, finishing in second place.

In Round two we had two of our boys competing. Jesse Holmes showed some great routines and took home the gold to become regional champion at bronze level aged 15+. Alex Fairhurst also showed his experience when competing and placed first to become regional champion of the gold category aged 15+.
​
The final round of the day saw Isabel Fearn, Kate Lee, Hannah Doran, Jessica Weekes and Ellie Raby compete against in a very tough competition at silver level. All of the girls showed confidence and class when performing their routines. Amy Smith showed an elegant floor routine and finished in third place. The round finished with Team mates Sophie Padua and Heather Denham finishing in the top two positions within the Silver category aged 16+. Sophie picked up a silver medal and Heather a gold to become regional champion.