TALENTED athlete Michael Taylor turned one night of spills into one of triple-silver medal-winning thrills at the Australian Gymnastics championships in Sydney last month.
The Year 12 student at The Armidale School co-captained the NSW gymnastics team to a terrific result at the championships, and brought home individual silver medals in two apparatus, and a third as part of the teams event.
“The first night of competition was a really bad one for me and I fell about three times. But the second night was one of the best competitions I’ve ever had,” said Taylor, a level nine gymnast who has been a member of the Armidale Gymnastics Club since the age of seven.
Gymnasts from across the country competed at the championships, held at the Sydney Olympic Park Sports Centre. Taylor’s spills during competition on 15 July put him at 11th place for floor and 12th on the parallel bars. Some 48 hours later, his fortunes turned around, and strong efforts were reflected in a score of 13.3 out of 15 for the floor and 12.9 from 14 for the parallel bars, earning him the silver in both.
His performances in four other apparatus – pommel, rings, high bar and vault – also helped propel his team to take silver in the teams event. For this, the four team members compete all six apparatus, with the top three scores in each team counting for overall points.
Also taking home a silver for the teams event was fellow Armidale Gymnastics Club member Brennan Czinner, a student at O’Connor Catholic College.
Taylor qualified for the national team to tour New Zealand in October, but it’s an honour he will have to pass up in favour of his HSC. Next year, he will be taking a ‘gap’ year at a school in Winchester, England.
“I’m not sure if I’ll have the opportunity to continue with it at school over there, so we’ll just have to see what happens after that,” he said.
