MENS ARTISTIC NATIONAL ELITE AND CLUB DEVELOPMENT GRADES 2019

Twelve of Woking’s Boys Squad qualified to represent the South East Region at this year’s National Elite and Club Grades Finals in Birmingham.

The weekend started with the Club Level 6 competition. Sarp Orbay and Joel Ireland both enjoyed good competitions, performing all their routines without major error. The two of them could only just be separated, Sarp (7th) beat Joel (9th) by just 0.05 but together their scores summated to earn the South East team a Bronze medal.

Tom O’Connor was Woking’s sole representative in the Club level 5 competition. He performed routine after routine with technical mastery and style to score an impressive 65.800 and won the competition. In addition to his gold medal, Tom was awarded an invite to the club development reward camp.

Saturday morning started with the club level 4 competition. Jamaal Kashim helped his team to a bronze medal with his stellar performance. Scoring 63.350, Jamaal finished the competition in 6th place and will also join Tom at the club development reward camp.

In his first appearance at National finals, Hayden Blackmun contributed to his team’s gold medal in the club level 2 competition. The standard was high, and Hayden’s score of 61.400 put him in 36th place out of the 63 competitors.

Saturday concluded with the start of the elite competition. Alex Donchev had a mixed day in the Elite level 5 competition. Despite sticking his handspring front somersault vault and performing a good h-bar routine, falls on the other apparatus proved costly as he slipped down to 12th place in the standings. Oliver Porter was competing in the Elite level 4 competition. He was the top scorer on pommel horse but made mistakes on PPP and Rings causing him to narrowly miss out on a podium position and finish in 4th place AA (62.050). This was enough to earn him an invite to the GB squad selection day in December. He will be joined at this day by his older brother Josh Porter. Josh was competing in his final level of the elite grades competition and can be pleased with his 5th place finish helping the South East team to win the bronze medal at Elite level 6. 

With Sunday morning came the turn of the Elite Level 2 competition. Woking had four members of the six man team. Jay Coote competed on just five apparatus due to injury, he scored 33.150 AA. Harrison Lamble helped the team with good performances on Floor and PPP, his AA score of 54.000 put him in 31st place. Team mate Max Veo-Creek enjoyed a good day at his first national finals including a 9.850 score on vault. Max finished in 29th position (55.350). The standout performance of the day was by Ben Porter. He delivered seven clean routines including two scores of 9.900 on Vault and H-Bar. Ben finished the competition in third place (64.750), he will join his two older brothers at the National Squad Selection Day as he hopes to gain a place in the GB Foundation Squad for 2020. Collectively, the South East team were winners of the silver medal.   

A great weekend for Woking and the South East team concluded with the Region being awarded the Blakeborough Trophy recognising us as the most successful region across the Elite Grades competition. Well done to all involved.