The Armidale City Gymnastics Club hosted an invitational for male gymnasts on Saturday, May 12.
Clubs from Ballina RSL, So Fun Gymnastics near Coffs Harbour and Inverell, as well as Armidale, competed.
A total of 33 gymnasts competed for medals and placings on six apparatus: Floor, Pommel, Vault, High bar, Rings and Parallel bars.
Also competing as a warm-up for their upcoming Nationals competition, NSW team representatives from Armidale, Michael Taylor and Brenna Czinner, also competed.
Because the two higher level boys compete on a different scale scoring system similar to the International code, they can obtain higher scores than the lower level boys. The highest scoring gymnast was Brennan Czinner at Level 7, closely followed by Michael at Level 8. The highlights of the day were the two boys’ vaults which scored 13.75 for Brennan with his layout tsukahara and Michael’s incredible 14.4. for a full twisting tsukahara which he stuck with precision. Hopefully this is a good omen for the two boys who will shortly be competing as NSW team members in the Australian National Championships to be held in Sydney at the State Sport Centre during the week of May 28. Brennan will compete in the team event on Tuesday, May 29 whilst Michael’s team event will be May 30. If they make the finals, they will again return to finals in apparatus on Wednesday, May 30 for Brennan and June 1 for Michael’s final. Both are looking a good chance in vault, whilst Michael’s Parallel Bar,s which he has won convincingly at two trails and is the current NSW champion, also looks likely to make finals.
In the lower levels the highest scoring gymnasts were Kyle McCormack at Level 1, closely followed by Jacob Black at his first competition and Kyle Donnan at Level 3 all representing the Armidale Club.
The Armidale side filled the top five places at the competition, with the highest scoring gymnast from outside being Ryley Smidt at Level 1 from So Fun Gymnastics near Coffs Harbour, who was 5th. The club will be running a Level 1 beginner judging course and clinic on July 1 and many of the clubs will be back again to participate in a pre-NSW Country Championships clinic.
