Mens Artistic National Elite and Club Development Grades 2017

On Friday 3rd November, 10 of Woking’s Boys squad made the annual pilgrimage to Birmingham to represent the South East Regional at the national grades finals.

Chrisitian Fuoco, Laurence Butler and Rudi Moriano were part of the South East Club Level 5 team and were first of the Woking gymnasts to compete. Their scores helped the team to a sixth place finish. Laurence was the top scorer placing 13th (62.65), Rudi was 23rd with 59.20, while Christian opted not to compete on rings, his highest score was a 9.3 on the vault.  

Saturday morning came the turn of the club level 2 team. Here Woking’s Tristan Lamble showed seven good routines to finish in a credible 21st place with 61.65, his scores also helped the team to place 6th. Meanwhile, in the Elite Level 3 competition, Santo Fuoco, and Thomas O’Connor tested their mettle in a tough field. Thomas performed well and can be pleased with his 10th place (66.82), Santo however was visibly disappointed after mistakes on P-bars and H-bar proved costly. He finished the competition in 15th with a score of 63.722.
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In the final round on Saturday, Joshua Porter and Toby Splain were to make up half of the south east elite level 4 team. Performing their difficult setwork routines, they helped the team to the silver medal. On an individual level Toby made a few mistakes and finished in 16th (60.68), while Josh managed to go cleanly though all eight apparatus to take the 8th spot (68.717). Josh has since been invited the National sports centre to undergo a trial for the place in the elite performance squad.
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After a long weekend, Sunday saw the turn of the elite level two team. Here Oliver Porter and Jamaal Kashim were victorious as their team took home the gold medal. Jamaal, recovering from illness, had a mixed day and scored 62.3 to earn him a 23rd place finish. Oliver showed his class on seven apparatus but a score of 0 on pommels proved to be very costly as he slipped down to 17th with a score of 63.9. The national staff took note of Oliver’s performances and he will join his brother at Lilleshall national sports centre as he trials to regain a place in the Great Britain squad.