YOUNG gymnasts turned on the class to land medals and ribbons at recent events.

Competitors from Bulwark’s Kestrel and Caldicot’s Wye Gymnastics clubs were both left beaming after good performances.

The Kestrel team of Erica Denby, Maisie Edwards, Georgie Davies, and Jessica Ham took fourth place Overall Ribbons in the Level 5 12 years and over girls section at the south east Wales Regional Championships in Newport.

Jessica also took fourth place Ribbon on beam, sixth place Ribbon on bars and fifth place Overall Ribbon to go through to the Welsh Finals at the Sport Wales National Centre in Cardiff as part of the south east team. 

Jessica scored 43.2, Georgie 41.25, Maisie 40.25 and Erica 38.1.

At the Welsh Finals a week later, Jessica placed fourth on vault, fifth on bars and seventh overall to help her South East take team silver, as well as the overall Welsh Team title.

In Level 6 girls 12 years and over, Cora Chisholm, Daisy Macharg, Lilli Edwards, and Martha Linden worked well, with the girls performing new floor routines to music to take fourth Overall Ribbons. Martha also took fourth place Ribbon on bars.

Meanwhile Wye Gymnastics hosted the fifth Quatro TeamGym League event at their Severnside Industrial Estate base.

Ten clubs, 44 teams and more than 150 gymnasts competed for titles in the artistic group competition.

Day One saw some of the newest competitors take the floor on Tumble, Trampette and Vault.

Team Discovery (Felicity Owen, Maisie Willis, Martha Jones-Dekerf, Pearl Fletcher and Shania Davies) and Team Shine (Ava Barrett, Jessica Humphries, Violet Riddoch and Xander Gair) both performed extremely well in the Mini Six Teams, with Shine taking gold from teammates Discovery, in silver, by just 0.1 points.

Team Challenger took silver at Level Six, with Carys Choules, Daisy Unstead, Freya Owen and Grace Donovan competing for the first time together as a team.

In Level Five, the youngest gymnasts in Mini Team Nova (Chloe Hebblethwaite, Megan Paul and Ruby Jarvis) just missed out on a medal position in fourth, 0.1 away from bronze and 0.4 away from gold.

Team Andromeda Bethan Peacock, Carys Dolbel, Erin Brady, Francesca Owen and Shurima Vine moved up in age group to compete in the 10-14 Level 5 Youth section and finished a respectable seventh.

Day Two was the turn of the Level Four and Three groups.

Head coach Carly Hawke said: “Mini Level Four Team Aquila (Dylan Smallcombe, Eva Meddins, Lois Child and Kelsey Howells) have been on a roll and came first in their category, also taking the highest score for all the Level 4 teams in the Challenge Cup Award.”

Team Cassiopeia competed in the Level Four Youth Category where Christopher Hammond, Hollie Millinship and Madi Paul took second in their age category and third in the Challenge Cup Award, 0.1 points behind Team Aquila.

Team Hydra, competing in Level Three for the first time, held their own to take third in their category and the Challenge Cup Award.

Coaches Leanne Evans and Chelsea Riddoch were ecstatic with the results, and Leanne said: “We are so pleased with the gymnasts’ performance this weekend, especially of those who hadn’t competed before. We are very proud of all of them.”

Carly added: “This was the last event of the league that has been taking place throughout the year and the excellent results will definitely help towards the overall total which will be announced at a presentation ceremony in January.”