Scottish Gymnasts at Celtic Cup

Celtic Cup 2009

Please click here to view photographs from the 2009 Celtic Cup.

The 2009 Celtic Cup took place on Saturday 28th March at Bells Sport centre in Perth and was a great success. Spectators were treated to some excellent performances by the gymnasts competing and the home team was shown warm and enthusiastic support.

Minors Competition

The day started with the minors competition which included gymnasts in the U13 age group for both MA and WA disciplines. The Scottish U13 men had drawn to start on Floor and the women Beam.

WA U13

The U13 Women started their competition on Beam with some nice performances. Allanah Bunyan was the top performer for Scotland with the 4th best score of 11.85. After the first rotation Scotland were in 2nd position and moved to floor determined to build upon the strong performances on beam. The girls performed well on floor with some super routines to keep them in 2nd position. Cara Kennedy led the Scottish girls on floor with a score of 11.75. The girls moved to vault which proved to be a very strong piece for them with Cara Kennedy achieving the top score for Scotland and also the 3rd best score in the competition. The team performance of the girls here meant their vault total was only 0.100 behind the Welsh girls. The last piece for the young girl’s team was bars. The girls performed well here to maintain their 2nd position.

The results came in and Scotland achieved a worthy second place with a score of 176.918. Wales took first place with N. Ireland in 3rd and Ireland in 4th. This was a great competition for the young U13 WA team and all of the gymnasts should be congratulated on their performances.

MA U13

The U13 Men took the lead from the first rotation with Reece Dall scoring 13.05 to be the top performer on floor. Next for the Men was the Pommel Horse where we saw some great performances from Stephen Tonge (11.90) and Cameron Dunsmore (11.65) and solid performances from the other boys which helped extend their lead over their nearest rivals Wales. Rings proved to be another good piece for the Scottish team and from there they moved to vault where the boys produced some brave performances with Rob Keys being the top performer on vault (13.30). The boys arrived at Parallel Bars and performed well to retain their lead moving into the final rotation and High Bar. Once again the boys produced the goods and performed well on this piece.

The U13 Men worked well on every piece coming 1st on every one apart from Parallel Bars where they were second. This superb performance overall resulted in a score of 282.85 and a well deserved 1st Place for the young team. Wales came in second, 6.3 points behind the winning Scottish Team with Ireland and Northern Ireland taking up the 3rd and 4th places respectively.

The success from the team competition continued into the Individual with Stephen Tonge taking joint 1st place with Daniel Fox of IRE. This was a superb achievement for Stephen and well deserved. Well done to every member of the Scotland U13 MA team for their success at the 2009 Celtic Cup.

Juniors Competition

After the excitement of the morning competition it was the turn of the Juniors to compete in the 2009 Celtic Cup. The WA teams included gymnasts in the U16 age group and the MA teams the U17 age group. The Scottish WA team drew to start on Floor and the MA team drew Pommel Horse.

WA U16

The Women got their competition off to a good start on floor with some solid performances and Tori Simpson as the top performer (12.9). This was good enough for them to move to the 2nd rotation in 2nd place behind Wales. Vault was next for the WA U16 team and this again proved to be a strong piece for the Scottish Women with a team score of 51.702 not far off the Welsh girls (53.734). Scotland maintained their 2nd position moving to the Bars. Jordan Lipton was the top performer for Scotland here and posted the second best score of the competition (12.55). Last for the girls was Beam where they achieved a team score of 46.45 only 0.75 behind the top team. Jordan Lipton produced another great score here (12.25) only 0.100 behind the top performer.

The Scotland U16 WA team achieved a worthy second place with a total score of 191.802. The result was very encouraging and every member of the team should be congratulated on their performances. Jordan Lipton was awarded for her all around performances by achieving the Silver Medal in the Individual competition with a personal total of 50.734.

MA U17

Pommel Horse was the first piece of apparatus for the U17 Men. They got off to a good start with Ryan McKee being the top Scottish performer with a score of 10.95. The Men moved to their 2nd piece, Rings, in second position. Ryan McKee led the Scottish team again here with a good routine and posted the 2nd best score of the competition 12.15. The third piece for the Men was vault which proved to be their strongest with the highest team score of 56.50. Ryan McKee vaulted superbly producing a great score of 15.50 which was 1.05 ahead of his nearest rival. The team performance on vault helped them maintain 2nd position as they moved to Parallel Bars. With a score of 13.25 Ryan McKee continued his efforts for the team competing very well. The Men moved to High Bar next and it was Liam Davie’s turn to lead the Scottish Men with a great routine and a top score of 13.15. The last piece for the Men was floor where they all produced great performances to have a team floor total of 49.35 only .300 behind Wales. Douglas Ross was the best performer for Scotland on floor with a score of 12.80, the 3rd best score.

The Scottish Men finished in second position with a total of 284.65 which was a good performance for the team. In the U17 individual competition Ryan McKee narrowly missed out on the Gold medal 0.500 points behind the winner ending what was a good competition for him.

Scottish Gymnastics would like to congratulate all of the gymnasts on their performances and thank all those involved in the organisation and delivery of the event.

Sarah Wallace

Celtic Cup 2008

24 Scottish gymnasts went to the Celtic Cup last weekend (23rd -24th February) to compete in Men's and Women's Artistic gymnastics at the annual Celtic Cup against gymnasts from Northern Ireland, Ireland and Wales. The gymnasts competed in two age groups - Under-13 and Under-16. All of the teams received the silver medal but unfortunately there were no individual medals. Click here for the results.

The following gymnasts represented Scotland:

Under-13 Men:
Robert Keys
Ross Barrett
Ryan Anderson
Stephen Tonge
Reece Dall
Cameron Dunsmore

Under-16 Men:
Chris Chalk
Steven Sneddon
Liam Davie
Byron Carruthers
Grant Millar
James Griffin

Under-13 Women:
Holly Ramage
Jordan Archibald
Kirsty Campbell
Hannah Kilcullen
Robyn Russell
Megan Glass

Under-16 Women
Hannah Leigh
Tori Simpson
Kati Simpson
Mollie Smith
Megan Slater
Amy Regan

The gymnasts were accompanied by the team coaches: Tan Jia-En, Andrew Webb, Marius Gherman, John Campbell, Sandy Richardson, Sandra Walsh, Bea Petersen and Jim Thompson. The team was also accompanied by Lynn Milne as head of delegation. Sally Flint, Marie Heath, Tommy McGill and Claire McAneny are Scotland's representative judges.

Well done team!