Championship joy for Natalie (From Penarth Times)

Championship joy for Natalie

8:25am Thursday 8th May 2008

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ELEVEN-year-old Natalie Gill of Penarth had the competition of her life at the British Club Grade Championships held at Birmingham recently.

The gymnastic world provides opportunities in the Olympic four-piece apparatus events at all levels, with those in the top echelon taking the extremely physically demanding advanced route through to Club Class and Challenge Cup and on to Invitationals, Novice and Inter-Club competitions.

Only Advanced, Club Grade and Challenge Cup have British National Final events, featuring participants from authorised qualifying rounds.

This event was for teams of four girls from Wales, Scotland and each of the 11 English Regions - a total of 52 of the best in Britain from the several hundred hopefuls in the qualifying rounds.

But did that un-nerve our Natalie? Not a bit.

Her supreme elegance and lightness of dance belied the power stored in those young legs for the fantastic tumbles she performed.

Her Floor performance was rewarded with a resounding audience ovation and a fantastic score of 12.9 which put her in first place for that apparatus.

Another highlight was her balancing beam routine which earned her fourth place. A stronger vault could perhaps have earned her an overall medal but her eventual position of eighth place was most creditable and helped the other members of the Welsh team, who were from Barry YMCA, Cardiff Central and Cardiff Olympic Clubs, to gain fourth position - just 0.25 points behind the South East of England team.

Natalie has recently been selected for the Welsh Regional Squad. This committed, delightful young lass is the pride of her club and her future now looks brighter than ever.

The very same weekend at Stoke on Trent, Elinor Lewis, also from Penarth Gym Club, represented her school Bro Morgannwg, and confirmed her supremacy as she, yet again, won the British Schools Tumbling Championship.

This title has been hers since her junior days with Ysgol Pen y Garth when she was the mighty atom of tumbling - but now, although a mature young student with examination pressures and less time for training, she still showed a clean pair of heels to all-comers by winning the British Schools Under 19 Championship.

This young lady is fitness personified and combines her sporting abilities with the disciplines of athletics.

In that area she excels at Pole Vaulting and trains regularly with the Welsh Squad at the Athletics Academy at UWIC.

Elinor's Tumbling success helped the Welsh Schools Association win the combined British Schools Sports Acrobatics and Tumbling title. What a girl!

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