For the first time in over two years, gymnasts from Shetland Gymnastics Club headed south on Friday 18th March on Northlink to attend the annual North District Competition held in the Garioch Sports Centre. Gymnastics Clubs from all over the North of Scotland attend this event. For most of Shetlands’ gymnasts, this was their first ever competition on the mainland and the aim of the day was to settle nerves, gain from the experience of competing against other gymnasts and to have fun.
First up was the 10/11 age group consisting of Oliwia Strachanowska, Lori Nicolson and Cari Sutherland. The girls started on vault which is their strongest piece and this helped settle their nerves. All 3 performed extremely well on equipment that they weren’t used to. In this age group there were 69 gymnasts overall and our girls did really well to place highly. Oliwia finished vault with 12.85 in 13th place, Lori 12.80 in 14th and Cari 12.75 in 15th place which was brilliant. They then moved to floor where 8 skills are performed one after the other in front of judges. Their scores were combined to give an overall team score and the girls placed 12th out of 21 teams which was brilliant. Lori and Cari have another year in this age group and Oliwia scored a high enough overall total of 24.45 to move her up to the intermediate level for her next competition.
Next up was our youngest gymnasts, our 8/9 age group. Unfortunately one of the team, Zara Nicolson, fell ill on the Friday so could no longer travel with the team. This left Lily Jamieson, River Tulloch and Adel Szucs to compete. These gymnasts have only ever competed once at home in November 2021 and they only started gymnastics last year so they have been working really hard to reach this level. Again this was a big age group with 61 gymnasts competing. On floor, our girls did really well. Lily scored 11.567 to place 18th, River 11.40 to place 23rd and Adel 11.034 to place 32nd. On vault, Adel was so close to medalling, placing 5th with a score of 13.00. River scored 12.75 to place 10th and Lily 12.15 to place 21st. The scores are so tight on vault that a 0.05 can make a big difference! Overall, the girls total scores were very good for a first competition and combined their team total resulted in 7th place finish out of 16 teams. Adel has another year in this age group and River scored high enough overall to move up to the intermediate section.
Our final, and biggest, age group was our 12+ gymnasts. Shetland entered 2 teams consisting of Ariana Rollo, Bella Irvine, Winnie Johnston, Aylee Johnson, Isla Willmore, Katie Hunter, Bella Gray, Julia Strachanowska, Anya Nicol and Khloe Wishart. Some of these gymnasts have never had the chance to compete on the mainland before covid so were up against much more experienced teams. There were 57 gymnasts in this age group and all our gymnasts floor scores were in the top half placings. Katie Hunter had the highest placing with a score of 12.30 to place 8th, closely followed by Isla Willmore with 12.10 in 10th then Ariana Rollo, Julia Strachanowska and Bella Irvine with 12.00 in 11th. Khloe Wishart finished floor in 13th with 11.85 then Aylee Johnson and Winnie Johnston in 14th with a score of 11.80. Anya Nicol placed 19th with a score of 11.30 and Bella Gray 21st scoring 11.20. On vault, Ariana Rollo finished in 8th place with a score of 12.40, then Bella Irvine 12th scoring 12.00 and Isla Willmore 14th with 11.85. Overall, our highest placing was Ariana Rollo finishing in 11th out of 57 gymnasts, enough to move her up to intermediate level. Close behind was Bella Irvine in 14th with an overall score of 24.00, enough to move up to intermediate also. Close behind was Isla Willmore 15th and Katie Hunter 17th. With such high placings, the gymnasts were just narrowly pusehd out of the team medals, placing 4th for Team A Ariana Rollo, Bella Irvine, Winnie Johnston, Aylee Johnson and Isla Willmore.
The coaches would like to thank the gymnasts for all their hard work since back in the gym last year, the parents for bringing them to every session and encouraging them, our judge for the day Andrea Sherwood, as well as Northlink Ferries for their continued sponsorship allowing the club to travel to competitions and to Clickimin staff for all the extra sessions we try to provide in the run up to events.
