Local gymnasts from Waterford’s Kilbarry Gymnastics Academy (KGA) had a very successful weekend bringing home two gold medals, team silver and a bronze medal at Gymnastics Ireland’s National Series competition at the Sport Ireland National Indoor Arena in Dublin last weekend (6 – 7 November)
The National Series programme encompasses all national level competitive gymnastics events in Ireland and this event saw KGA send 10 gymnasts from their competitive squad to the Women’s Artistic competition which ran over two days at the World class gymnastic facilities in the National Indoor Arena.
On Saturday 6 November Over 9 Level 2a gymnast Freya Healy came third winning the bronze medal and Over 9 Level 2c Gymnast Molly Doheny was crowned National Champion winning the gold medal by over 5 points. Level 3s over 10 saw Lily Doheny coming 4th narrowly missing out on a medal, with Halle Thompson finishing 7th.
Sunday 7 November saw Level 4 gymnast Sophie Dunne crowned all-around champion winning gold and the Level 4 Team of Sophie Dunne, Sinead Keane and Charley Caulfield won silver in the Team event. Bethan Morgan narrowly missed out on a medal in the Under 9s level 2a finishing 4th, with the highest level 2a floor score of the day.
Club director and head coach Maddie Croke was delighted with the results; “Last weekend saw our squad girls compete for the first time in over two years, with some attending their first ever competition. I am so proud of how hard they have worked towards this and how dedicated they are to their training. The Covid-19 restrictions have been a huge challenge and our club and gymnasts have operated extremely well under the circumstances implementing the protocols to ensure we keep all of our gymnasts safe.”
The 10 strong squad of talented and dedicated gymnasts who all train 8 - 10 hours a week are Bethan Morgan, Evelyne De Paor, Freya Healy, Anna Pierce, Molly Doheny, Lily Doheny, Halle Thompson, Sophie Dunne, Sinead Keane and Charley Caulfield. Coaches Maddie Croke, Lindsey Sheehan and Rachael Egan also attended the competition.
Kilbarry Gymnastic Academy was established in 1984 with new management taking over in 2020. The club runs classes for all levels of gymnasts from pre-schoolers to adults, with popular recreational classes for girls and boys as well as a development squad and a high-level competitive Women’s Artistic Gymnastics squad. You can find out more at Kilbarry Gymnastic Academy’s Facebook and Instagram pages and at https://kilbarryg.wixsite.com/mysite.
