Artistic | Women’s Classic Challenge Success for Scottish Gymnasts
Scottish gymnasts secured a fantastic medal haul at the Women’s Artistic Classic Challenge Championships this weekend at the Surrey Sports Complex.
A total of 16 medals were won by the gymnasts in the regional team final event, with team successes for both the bronze and silver level gymnasts as well as a host of individual medals across all three competition levels. The Scottish team also won the Bill McLoughlin Cup – pipping Wales to the post with the following gymnasts contributing to the combined highest individual apparatus scores from each level:
Bronze level: Olivia Fielding (East Kilbride) and Amber Thomson (Balwearie)
Silver level: Islay Grant (Garioch), Katie Ferries(City of Aberdeen) and Niamh Stupart (City of Edinburgh)
Gold level: Abbie Nicholl and Katie Coull (Hamilton)
A huge congratulations to the gymnasts who competed as part of the Scottish regional team, and well done to all of those who won medals at the event.
Following classic challenge competitions that were held in Perth over the last two months, the teams of gymnasts were selected to compete against the other 13 regions. With both a team, all around and individual apparatus medals up for grabs, it was an exciting day of competition for all taking part.
The bronze level competition saw the regional team from Scotland take the gold medal, with a team score of 191.300. Wales took the team silver, with gymnasts from the West Midlands taking bronze. Scottish gymnasts claimed all three podium spots in the all-around competition with Amber Thomson from Balwearie winning gold, Olivia Fielding from East Kilbride winning silver, and Megan Coyle from City of Edinburgh taking third place.
Victoria May Melville from City of Aberdeen, Casey Reid and Leah Douglas from Garioch also competed as of the regional team, and performed well against tough competition. There were individual medals for Amber Thomson (Gold on uneven bars), Megan Coye (Bronze on uneven bars and balance beam) and Olivia Fielding (Gold on balance beam).
At silver level, the Scottish regional team finished in third place overall with solid performances from Islay Grant from Garioch who won an individual silver on balance beam and missed out on podium placings by 0.05 on the floor and .2 in the all-around contest. These great scores were joined by the rest of the team's performances: Niamh Stupart from City of Edinburgh, Katie Ferries from City of Aberdeen, Taylor Duncan from Balwearie, Erin Smith from Hamilton and Louise Joyce from Meadowbank.
A total of six medals were won by gold level gymnasts and teammates Abbie Nicholl and Katie Coull from Hamilton. Abbie claimed the all-around title with a score of 46.550 as well as silver in vault, uneven bars and balance beam. Katie won individual medals too, with a bronze on vault and floor.
Ruth Gibson, chair of the Scottish Gymnastics women’s artistic technical committee said: "What a great weekend for women's artistic gymnastics in Scotland. Our Classic Challenge regional finalists went above and beyond expectations returning home with medals galore. The new event was such an amazing and enjoyable experience, and the results were the icing on the cake."
It was such a pleasure and privilege to be part of such a unified team and all clubs and gymnasts bonded with determination, style and precision.
You can view the full results by visiting the British Gymnastics website.