British Championships 2019

British Championships 2019
14th - 17th March
Liverpool

U12s
Jamaal Kashim - 58.250 (58th)
Oliver Porter - 67.000 (11th), Bronze medal on P-Bars
 
U14s
Joel Ireland - 59.700 (52nd)
Thomas O'Connor - 60.050 (50th)
Alex Donchev - 65.850 (24th)
Joshua Porter - 67.950 (13th)
 
U16s
Christian Fuoco - 56.850 (39th)
 
U18s
James Miller - 64.850 (26th)
Fraser Griffiths - 70.650 (13th)
Jasper Smith-Gordon - 72.850 (9th), Silver on vault
 
Senior
Lorenzo Carrozzo - 69.450 (21st)
Timothy McCarthy - 71.450 (15th)
Jamie Lewis - 80.950 (3rd)
 
Masters
Floor - Jamie 4th
Rings - Jamie 2nd
Vault - Jasper 4th

From 14th - 17th March, the 2019 British Championships took place at the M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool. The competition started on Thursday with the U12 category. Woking’s Jamaal Kashim had an up and down day, making a few mistakes to finish with an All-Around (AA) total of 58.250. This was enough for 58th place and he will have gained valuable experience competing in the arena that will host the 2022 World Championships. Team mate Oliver Porter enjoyed a more successful day, he produced a number of high class routines, and battled through his pommel routine. There was a small error in his final routine on the rings meaning he finished just outside the top 10 with an AA score of 67.000 (11th). His standout routine of the day came on the P-Bars where he was rewarded with a 12.450 and a bronze medal.

The evening session saw the start of the U18 competition. In a tough field containing junior European medallists, the Woking trio of James Miller, Fraser Griffiths and Jasper Smith-Gordon held their own. James made a few mistakes throughout the competition and finished in 26th (64.850). Fraser, in his first competition back since injury looked good in places but his lack of fitness showed towards then end, falling on his final dismount and scoring 70.650 (13th). Jasper started with a big routine on floor, and safely made it through the subsequent apparatus without major error until he too struggled with his H-Bar dismount. Jasper was putting out his new vault for the first time and came away with a silver medal on vault, his score of 14.025 was enough to qualify for the Masters Final.  Jasper finished 9th with an AA score of 72.850.

The U14 competition took place on Friday. Joel Ireland enjoyed a good competition at his first British Championships just making a mistake on pommel horse scoring 59.700 AA and finishing 52nd. Teammate Thomas O’Connor was just ahead in 50th place with 60.050. Alex Donchev started the competition with a fall on H-Bar but picked himself up to perform five good routines, including an impressive straight yurchenco on vault, to finish in 24th (65.850). Josh Porter was the top Woking gymnast in this age group, catching his Tkatchev on H-Bar for the first time helped him to an AA total of 67.950 (13th).

Christian Fuoco was Woking’s sole competitor in the U16 age group. Mistakes on pommel and H-bar proved to be very costly as he finished in 39th place AA (56.850). 

There was a big crowd in attendance for the senior competition, with a star studded field containing World and Olympic medallists. Lorenzo Carrozzo, competing for the first time in this age group had a jittery afternoon making a few mistakes. He did however manage to catch his Kovacs on H-Bar for the first time in competition. He finished in 21st place (69.450). Team mate Tim McCarthy started with a stylish P-Bar routine, scoring 12.900. He suffered a fall from the pommel horse tarnishing an otherwise clean competition, he accrued an AA total of 71.450 enough for 15th place. Jamie Lewis was involved in a tightly fought battle for a podium position. Despite errors in his pommel routine, he finished strongly with a good rings routine to take home the Bronze medal AA (80.950). He added to this with a Bronze medal on floor where he beat the current Olympic champion.

The final competition of the weekend was the Masters Apparatus finals. This prestigious event allows the best U18 gymnasts to compete against their senior counterparts. Jamie first featured in the floor final, the current junior European champion on this apparatus he produced a clean routine scoring 13.550, this placed him fourth by way of a tiebreak. There was joy to be had on the rings, where Jamie executed his routine very well and earned himself a silver medal. Unfortunately Jamie injured his foot on his rings dismount and had to withdraw from the High bar Masters Final.  The last final of the day to feature a Woking gymnast was the master’s vault final. Jasper Smith-Gordon safely landed his two high tariff vaults scoring an impressive 14.100. Competing against gymnasts much older than him, he missed out on a medal by just 0.087. 

Congratulations to all the gymnasts and coaches Simon Elliott, Craig Woodhams, Grant Gardiner and Steve Elwood!